


The White Dragon: Straddling Two Worlds That Hate You Equally

by silveradept



Series: The Suck Fairy's Greatest Hits: The Dragonriders of Pern [6]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: "Nice Girls" Attitudes, Ableism, Ageism, Bullying, Commentary, Extremely Dubious Consent, F/M, Gaslighting, Genocidal Intent, Male Gaze, Mansplaining, Meta, Misogyny, Nonfiction, Objectification, Patriarchy, Pern Lacks Social Workers, Pern Lacks Therapists, Rape Apologia, Rape Culture, Sexism, Stalker Jaxom, Suicidal Thoughts, Swearing, Toxic Masculinity, boundary violations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-11
Updated: 2015-11-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:09:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 23
Words: 52,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23414356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: A commentary read with excerpts of The White Dragon, the third and last of the original Dragonriders of Pern Trilogy, part of the Dragonriders of Pern novels.
Relationships: Jaxom/Corana (Dragonriders of Pern), Jaxom/Sharra (Dragonriders of Pern)
Series: The Suck Fairy's Greatest Hits: The Dragonriders of Pern [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663699
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12





	1. An A-History

**Author's Note:**

> This is the Director's Cut of meta originally posted at [Slacktiverse](https://slacktiverse.wordpress.com).
> 
> Content notes for each chapter are in their respective posts, and all content notes in the work are in the tags.
> 
> Director's commentary will be rendered _[in a manner like this.]_

Say hello to the third book of the Dragonriders of Pern's original trilogy. It is published after Dragonsinger, leaving the Harper Hall in a pleasant state of journeyman-Menolly glow, to come back to Jaxom and Ruth, a loose end not yet tied up.

That said, the recommended order of reading from the author, according to a statement made on The Other Wiki, is to complete the Harper Hall first, then come back to this. We've taken that route, even though it breaks the order of publication. So, for any characters that we meet here that we've explored in Dragondrums, they were first mentioned here and then later backfilled in. I'll do what I can to try and remember that myself as we go along.

The spoilertext prologue reappears here, but this time does its best to go through a systematic version of all the events of ancient times to the current one, including summaries of the first two volumes that would be roundly denounced as hagiography were they to appear in something claiming to be a historical text. Considering the constants of the Pernese universe, I suppose such fawning was inevitable, but a person starting on this book would have a much better opinion of everyone than we do, having gone through and seen all of the nasty, horrible things that happen.

**The White Dragon: Introduction**

While Dragonflight and Dragonquest had time and place markers in relation to their actions, The White Dragon introduces us to the idea of a Pernese system of measuring epochs. Turns of the planet, and various Terra-influenced timekeeping divisions of that (sevendays, for example) and of single rotations of the planet (hours) have been introduced and used casually without any backstory, suggesting the timekeeping system hasn't changed a whole lot. Since there are records of the very distant past available, this makes sense. And while the have been hints of measuring greater lengths of time (Intervals, Long or Short), there hasn't really been a method for standardizing those measures in place, obliquely or explicitly.

Chapter One opens up with a time designation, "Present Pass, 12th Turn", and so we now finally have a method by which the epochs of Pern are kept. The use of "Present Pass" seems, on its face, to be in the same vein as the various egocentricities of Terra, like "anno domini", "common era", or "the xth year of Emperor Y", except those methods indicate a starting point from which all things flow, or count how many times the epoch has changed since the first.

The choice of "Present Pass", though, instead of "Xth Pass" is a decision to avoid connecting to history - a way of looking at things that mirrors how the dragons are supposedly uninterested in much of the past or the future. In this kind of system, when the existential threat arrives, everything shrinks to the question of surviving, with little regard for the idea that this has happened before. In a world that didn't have the past staring them in the face every time Thread came, that didn't have access to the artifacts and Records of the past, and didn't have, say, _the ability to travel into the past_ , perhaps the idea of naming everything in relation to the immediate present would make more sense. This sort of timing system might have been workable in the very first book, before anything else was established, but even then, as time and books go on, this same question would appear. Given the ability to move through the past by thinking about the time where one wants to go, most of these Lost Knowledge questions should be answerable. With enough hops backward, and so long as one stays high enough, the only possible problem would be jumping into the middle of Threadfall. That could be mitigated, though, through the same careful keeping of records. Land at the end of the last Fall, study the records to know which days had Thread where, hop back to the beginning of those records, study new records, lather, rinse, repeat. On the way back, chart out how one is going to get forward again, and then just copy and take forward the missing information. Since our protagonists at Benden have demonstrable curiosity about the ancients, this should be some form of systematic knowledge collection.

If unwilling to risk dragonriders, then surely the Harpers, as keepers of the teaching songs, would have extensive archives about various things that they have been preserving for many years. And many copyists taking the oldest records and recopying them, year after year after year. It's how the actual medieval period kept knowledge circulating from generation to generation. With knowledge written down, even if encoded in the equivalents of alchemical formulas or the esoteric writings of mystic paths and secret societies, there's less opportunity for things to die off because the single repositories of knowledge die before they can pass everything on. Even then, the time-travelers could hop back and collect the last of the knowledge before someone dies.

With the setup that we have, there should be no reason for any sort of knowledge to have been lost permanently. The only issues that appear to be affecting temporal travel of the sort you would find in a Connie Willis novel is that being alive where you have already been alive is taxing on the sanity. So that may preclude collecting knowledge in your own lifetime, but since Lessa demonstrated you can travel back to times before your own birth, the gap of knowledge would be recent history, and that should be fillable by those who are the historians of this era. "Present Pass" suggests that world-destroying cataclysms happen a regular basis, and those same cataclysms regularly make the past inaccessible. Or uninteresting, despite the clear utility demonstrated in knowing what the past has to offer to fight Thread and develop plans. 

The most forgiving Doylist interpretation suggests that the extent of "the past" that was available to Pern hasn't been fully fleshed out yet, so the author was making sure they weren't tied to a particular chronology that would be too limiting. By this point, though, there's been too much of the past insinuated or uncovered for this ahistory to work out. Even if the full extent of what happened on Pern to this point is never revealed, there's too much history right now for people to pretend or to believe that the present is really the only thing that's important.

Let's call this Pass what it is, in relation to all the other Passes that have happened before.

_[Later books will do this, once the chronology of the series is more firmly established._

_The way that time travel doesn't work on Pern, and the continual lack of interest in the history of the planet, despite the fact that the dragonriders have literal time-travel devices that only need a clear enough picture to function, will be a frequent target of my annoyance from this point forward. Introducing time travel into a work, as was noted in the comments to the original, begins to make the work about time travel, instead of about anything else that it might be about. It's a power that can be used to get out of any situation, potentially, and so there have to be consistent limits placed on the ability to use it for it not to be used or abused all over the narrative._

_Worse, when we get to the Todd books, he starts using time travel as plot points to force Stable Time Loops and other events to happen where future knowledge, or far future knowledge, is used to set up situations so that the far future knowledge will be transmitted back into the past unceasingly. By the time those books are done, there are several points in Pernese history where having survived a disaster allows someone to send the information back in time so that they can survive it, or that someone's future self helps their past self survive something, even though that future self ends up dying to do so. It's a mess.]_


	2. The Third Time Is Not Charming

Let's get to the actual text of the book, now that my issues with the idea of keeping time using "Present Pass" are taken care of.

**The White Dragon: Chapter One: Content Notes: Bullying, gaslighting**

The chapter opens with Jaxom finishing a cleaning of Ruth under N'ton's direction. Actually, Jaxom had had help with the cleaning part, which he is pleased about, because it means his group of bullies hadn't been able to torture him:

> From the corner of his eye, Jaxom noticed Dorse and his cronies creeping away, just in case N'ton had any further hard work for them. Jaxom had somehow managed to keep the smugness he felt under control during all of Ruth's bath. Dorse and the others hadn't dared disobey the dragonrider when N'ton had blithely pressed them into service. To see them sweating over the "runt", the "oversized fire lizard", unable to tease and taunt Jaxom as they'd planned to do this morning, raised Jaxom's spirits considerably. He entertained no hopes that the situation would last long. But, if today the Benden Weyrleaders decided that Ruth was strong enough to bear his weight in flight, then Jaxom would be free to fly away from the taunts he'd had to endure from his milkbrother and his cronies.

This, in publication chronology, is the second such story to indicate that bullying is rampant everywhere on Pern, with adults always conveniently elsewhere (or in Menolly's case before and Piemur's afterward, actively participating), and I might ask what kind of world is being built where being bullied by groups is just a fact of life for the main characters. I suppose it could be an attempt to point out how the people who are different here on Terra have to suffer such things on a daily basis, group bullying and adult involvement included. That said, dragons. At this point, it seems to be more like the author had only one story type to work with for their young characters, and all we're doing at this point is riffing on the theme - specially talented bullied child leaves bullying environment, discovers great and awesome thing, has adventures.

It's also interesting that the bullied kids are all in positions of relative power and privilege - a Sea-Holder's daughter, a Lord Holder/dragonrider, and a Harper. Living in the upper crust doesn't necessarily grant immunity from your peers...but it's also interesting that we haven't seen any of the kids perform classist bullying on people they consider lower status. Despite being a caste kind of society, all of the looking down on the commoners has been done by adults to this point.

N'ton points out to Jaxom that Ruth's coloration is not due to albinism, which would be the most likely cause for whiteness (a lack of pigmentation), but instead is white because of a combination of all pigmentation colors for dragons.

> "Y'know," N'ton began, frowning slightly as he folded his arms across his damp-spattered tunic, "Ruth isn't really white."
> 
> Jaxom stared incredulously at his dragon. "He's not?"
> 
> "No. See how his hide has shadows of brown and gold, and ripples of blue or green on the near flank."  
>  [...Jaxom had somehow not noticed this, but attributes it to cleanliness and a bright sun...]  
>  "He's...more...all dragon shades than the lack of any," N'ton continued.

Which, to be this way, would be...iridescence, I guess? Since pigments, when combined, become black, not white, if Ruth has shadings of all the other colors, I would expect him to be the black dragon, but that produces color connotations that I'm sure the author wants to avoid in their city-states pastiche. It's good for Ruth, though, because one of the noticeable bad effects of albinism is the sensitivity to ultraviolet rays that translates into ease of sunburn. In a world like Pern, where getting out of the sun means going into giant caves, it's not a good thing to have to have your dragon stay inside during the day. That would have likely sunk any plans anyone had for Jaxom to become either a Holder or a dragonrider.

N'ton assures Jaxom that Ruth is a properly-proportioned and healthy dragon, even though Ruth is half the size of any other dragon, and that he should be able to hold Jaxom just fine. On their way back to the hold, Jaxom reflects on everything that's happened since he impressed Ruth, and the massive guilt trip (although he doesn't recognize it as such) that's being inflicted on him by everyone around.

> Not that he had wanted to, but Impressing Ruth had caused all kinds of problems for the Benden Weyrleaders, F'lar and Lessa, for the Lord Holders, and for himself, since he was not allowed to be a real dragonrider and live in a Weyr. He had to remain Lord Holder of Ruatha or every younger Holdless son of every major Lord would fight to the death to fill that vacancy. The worst problem he had caused was to the man he desperately wanted most to please, his guardian, Lord Lytol. Had Jaxom only paused a moment to think before he jumped onto the hot sands of Benden's Hatching Ground to help break the tough shell for the little white dragon, he'd have realized what anguish he would bring to Lord Lytol by a constant reminder of what the man had lost with the death of his brown Larth. Never mind if Larth had died Turns before Jaxom's birth at Ruatha Hold, the tragedy was vividly, cruelly fresh in Lytol's mind, or so everyone told Jaxom repeatedly. If this was so, Jaxom often wondered, why then hadn't Lytol protested when the Weyrleaders and Lord Holders agreed that Jaxom must try to raise the little dragon at Ruatha?

Jaxom, you haven't learned about the power of the narrative in relation to F'lar getting what he wants, yet, so that's forgivable. Consulting my notes from Dragonquest, it seems that the was a lot of drinking and Sith Lessa interference involved in setting up this particular situation, so there may not be a straight answer to give about why Lytol doesn't object to seeing another dragon being cared for in his Hold. The most obvious answer is that time has, in fact, dulled the grief and pain Lytol feels for the lost Larth to the point where he can function normally, even around other dragons. If that's the case, though, then other people can't use it to browbeat Jaxom, taking advantage of his capacity for empathy, to some purpose, I would assume, other than "to make the kid feel bad about himself". Because if that is the reason why, then I hope Jaxom conveniently forgets to let those people back into his Hold when Thread is falling outside, so they can understand what kind of psychological damage they did to him.

Also, what the hell, narrative? Although Dragondrums comes later, with its torture scene, it had already been established before then that there is such a thing as a Conclave of Holders that could settle matters of succession if Jaxom had gone off to the Weyr. And since Lytol is regent at this point, if Jaxom did want to go to the Weyr, surely Lytol could run the place until the Holders determined who would be best-suited to rule, assuming the Benden Weyrleaders didn't have a firm opinion on the matter. There should be none of this "chaos and battle among younger sons" crap, unless it's part of a concerted effort to gaslight Jaxom into staying right where he is, for whatever unknown reason. And if a younger son of a Holder shows up with an army to take Ruatha, Lessa only has to appear on Ramoth, say "MINE," and the matter gets resolved in her favor, because DRAGONS. Plus, as we find out in a few pages, at least some of the residents of Ruatha consider Lessa the last remaining pure-blooded Ruathan. Which, combined with the dragon, should give her significant weight in determining who rules there. Ramoth might even enjoy the possibility of ripping apart a few of the mounts of the soldiers if she's getting close to a mating cycle.

Back to the plot. N'ton asks Jaxom if Lytol has any fosterlings, under the idea that Jaxom should be socialized with other children of his own rank, to which Jaxom shrugs and points out Dorse and gang, and mentions he hasn't seen F'lessan much, either, to N'ton's inquiry about their ability to make mischief in the past. When N'ton's fire lizard arrives and chitters excitedly, because Ruth is present and every fire lizard likes Ruth, Jaxom asks N'ton why Ruth is so popular. Tris doesn't say, and N'ton can only speculate. As Jaxom heads back to change for the trial, we find out why Dorse had been given free reign to torment Jaxom - apparently, during his birth, for a part we didn't see in Dragonflight, since the narrative was busy with Lessa getting F'lar and Fax into a knife fight to the death. Dorse's mother, Deelan, had given birth to Dorse two days before Jaxom, and thus was still able to nurse and lactate for Jaxom, who would have otherwise died without the breast milk she provided. Because of that, both Lytol and the Hold Harper told Jaxom he owed his life to her and to Dorse, and he had to share everything he had with Dorse.

_[This is a Cocowhat space.]_

I can understand "be respectful and generous to Deelan, because she nursed you to life when your mother died in childbirth", but I don't see how any of that favor automatically extends to her son, because I refuse to believe that she was the only woman capable of lactating at that point in time, based on the narrative's own insistence that Fax liked to sleep around and get as many women pregnant as he could. Yes, his birth made it possible for her to do what was necessary, but he should derive no direct benefit from that, because _she_ ultimately made the decision to nurse. Yet another way the sexism of Pern manifests, according benefit to men and boys because of the actions of women.

Jaxom has enough time to scrub himself up a bit and change into his new clothes before the Benden Weyrleaders arrive. He's nervous about hurting Ruth (empathy!), which Ruth assures him isn't possible. Lessa doesn't help Jaxom's nerves by teasing him about being thin, and Jaxom realizes he's taller than Lessa, which is also embarrassing. The Benden Weyrleader steps in and redirects the conversation to Ruth, delivering a compliment that Ruth is bigger than he expected, because of Jaxom's care. After an inspection, everyone is in agreement that Jaxom gets to try and fly with Ruth. Jaxom expresses Ruth's eagerness:

> "Yes, sir, because, he **is** a dragon, and dragons all fly!"

Which, the narrative subtly reminds us, is a call back to Lessa in Dragonflight, about her wanting to take Ramoth out flying instead of being cooped up in a Weyr.

The flight test is a success, although Ruth and Jaxom both have some things to learn about good takeoff and landing technique so that Jaxom isn't bounced around during either. The dragonriders seem pleased, the Lord Holders seem sour, and the Harpers (Robinton and Menolly) seem thoughtful. And Lytol is a blank. N'ton and the Benden Weyrleader discuss the next phases of training for Jaxom and Ruth, where N'ton says he'll handle the training part, even though the Benden Weyrleader clearly wants to, since Ruth hatched at Benden. There's another call back where the Benden Weyrleader assents to teaching Ruth how to fly _between_ :

> "Oh, very well. He's to be trained to fly **between**. Otherwise, I suppose you'd try it on your own anyhow, wouldn't you, young Jaxom, being of Ruathan Blood?"
> 
> "Sir?" Jaxom really didn't quite believe his good fortune.
> 
> "No, F'lar, Jaxom wouldn't try such a thing on his own," N'ton replied in a curious tone. "That's the trouble. I think Lytol has done his job too well."
> 
> "Explain," F'lar replied curly.
> 
> F'nor held up his hand. "Here's Lytol himself," he said in quick warning.

Intriguing.

Jaxom is quite happy that the test went well, because it means he'll soon be able to escape Dorse and everyone else giving him trouble. On his way to the feast that will be in his honor, he notices Robinton avoid a frenetic fair of fire lizards flying into and out of the doorway by flattening himself against the door itself and shielding his face. Or rather, Robinton flattens himself, and then observes Jaxom taking care of Ruth, as the viewpoint has shifted without warning. Robinton is unhappy at how things have turned out, mostly because of the geopolitical headaches that Ruth flying will now generate. Jaxom slipped through his fingers, because he was too distracted with other things to pay enough attention, even with all his journeymen and aides running missions for him. A call to his reputation at being able to identify wine by taste distracts him from his current line of thinking, and after demonstrating his talent, and toasting Jaxom in such a way that makes it an inevitable point of discussion, the assembled fall to the discussion of what to do with Jaxom, since he bridges both worlds of dragonrider and Lord Holder.

> "There will be no problem, Sangel," said F'lar diplomatically. "We've no shortage of large dragons in the Weyr. So he isn't needed to fight."
> 
> "We've no shortage of trained, Blooded men to take Hold here, either," Sangel said, shooting his jaw out belligerently. Trust old Sangel to come to the point, thought Robinton gratefully.
> 
> "Not with Ruathan Blood," Lessa said, her grey eyes flashing. "The whole point of my relinquishing my blood right to this Hold when I became Weyrwoman was to cede it to the one remaining male with any Ruathan Blood in his veins - Jaxom! As long as I live, I will not permit Ruatha, of all the Holds of Pern, to be the prize for continent-wide blood duels among younger sons. Jaxom remains as Lord Holder-elect of Ruatha; he will never be a fighting dragonrider."
> 
> "Just like to set matters straight," Sangel said, stepping aside to avoid the icy stare Lessa gave him. "But you've got to admit, Weyrwoman, that riding dragons, no matter in how limited a fashion, can be dangerous. Heard about that Weyrling at High Reaches..."

Ahem. As I was saying before...

Jaxom having no peers allows Groghe to pawn off one of his sons on Lytol with no expectation of reciprocation, which leads to a broader discussion of the problem of too many sons and not enough land for all of them to have their own fiefdoms. Which was a real problem in the world Pern is playing off, and led to the kind of warfare that the Lords Holder are trying to avoid. And since there is no church to send those sons off to, nor any foreign war campaigns, and dragonriders can only take as many sons as there are eggs...it's a powder keg. What I don't know is how widespread and well-known the dragonrider abortion is, which would be a pretty simple solution to the problem of too many children, assuming that the ladies of the hold would be able to sneak out.

Groghe pressures the Benden Weyrleader to open up the Southern Continent to send those younger sons to, for exploration and conversion to their own Holds. Robinton tries to deflect the idea by pointing out that other younger sons have found service in the Crafthalls working with Fandarel, and that some of those idle sons might find similar work as a Craft task force exchanging ideas and technique. Groghe is dismissive of the idea, and the eventual solution of Jaxom is hit upon - fosterling from Groghe, instruction on riding, and then apprenticeship to Robinton's archivist, Master Arnor (who we know from Dragonsinger is very finicky and fiddly about everything relating to his craft) in addition to all his requirements on learning how to be a Holder. Jaxom's arrival at his own feast closes the chapter, but Jaxom is really excited at his possible future when told about the plan.

I'm still side-eyeing the presence of another bullying group in this novel, though, because past evidence and future evidence suggest that their presence means that Jaxom is going to get hurt by them, and likely hurt horribly. It would be nice if we avoided making it a trilogy with regard to the bullies. And that people would stop trying to make him the source of their problems, whether "on behalf of" Lytol, his dual status, or because his mother brought him into existence. Maybe we can have a full novel of an adventure story, instead of just pieces?


	3. While You Were Out

Last chapter, Ruth and Jaxom passed their flying exam, bringing to a head the situation that had been something for many Turns now. 

**The White Dragon, Chapter 2: Content Notes: None**

Chapter Two is in "Present Pass, Thirteenth Turn", so anywhere from a few months to an entire Turn plus has passed since Chapter One. The action opens with Toric and Robinton approaching a meeting with the Benden Weyrleaders, with Toric amazed at the size of Mnementh and Robinton pleased that Mnementh responded to his polite greeting.

Also of note is that Robinton is complaining of chest pains that don't go away with rest. Lacking cardiologists, though, there's no apparent way to Robinton to know that he's exhibiting a classic sign of incoming cardiac arrest. Surely a Healer has examined him, with Oldive right there at the Hall to tell him what's about to happen. That assumes, of course, that Robinton has actually been to see a Healer recently.

The meeting begins with some good-natured ribbing of Robinton about a recent trip of his to the South where he got caught in a giant squall and would likely have died, but for Menolly.

> Robinton suddenly realized his adventure had had disturbing repercussions in this Weyr. He was both gratified and chagrined. True, at the time of the gale, he'd been far too occupied with his rebellious stomach to think beyond the next wave that crashed over their little boat. Menolly's skill had kept him from realizing the acute danger they were in. Afterward he had come to appreciate their position and wondered if Menolly had suppressed her own fear lest she lose honor in his eyes. She'd gone about her seamanship, managing to save most of the wind-torn sail, rigging a sea anchor, lashing him to the mast as he'd been made weak by nausea and retching.

Or, perhaps, because Menolly was raised in a Sea Hold and made much of her life by sailing, she actually knew what she was doing and went about it with the practice someone does when they've been in that situation before. It has nothing to do with you, Robinton. Even if, as we learn in the future, in Dragondrums, Menolly does have feelings for Robinton.

This is another regrettable example of informed abilities - Menolly had two books to herself to show off lots of things, but they focused on her musical talent over all the other skills she had, unless those skills were directly relevant, like being able to hunt up food for fire lizards. And the future scene in Dragondrums will be about fire lizard mating - apart from making skiffs for Weyr children, there has been almost nothing of Menolly sailing that we see directly - instead, we hear about how good she is from others after the fact. Because girls can't be sailors, like they can't be Harpers, like they can't fly fighting dragons, like they can't be Holders, like they can't have people that treat them well? The chain of events here is not a good one.

The meeting is actually to talk about the problems that Toric has with the Southern Weyr - they don't help Toric explore the continent, they don't fly to fight Thread, and they demand that the Holders keep them properly supplied in fruit and game.

> "What?" Lessa exploded, but F'lar touched her shoulder.
> 
> "I'd wondered about that, Toric."
> 
> "How dare they?" Lessa continued, her gray eyes flashing. Ramoth stirred on her couch.
> 
> "They dare, all right," Toric said, looking nervously at the queen.
> 
> However, Robinton could see that Lessa's appalled reaction to the Oldtimers' delinquency gratified the man.

_[Apply cocowhat here.]_

Wait, this is entirely wrong. The roles here should be reversed - the Benden Weyrleader is the one who goes off on people defying the traditions and _Lessa_ is the more levelheaded one. We're supposed to believe that in the years since, they've flipped positions?

Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-NO. Because that plays way too much against the type that has been established for Mr. Tradition in the previous two books focusing on him and Lessa. And because it also removes Lessa from the "smart and capable women" category that she was heading up before the narrative started chomping away at each of them though contrivances.

But this exchange continues in the same vein and the Benden Weyrleader asks Toric what he wants to try and change the subject - forged metal, flamethrower parts, and to apprentice Sharra, his sister, to Master Oldive. That will get her set into position to find Piemur on the Southern Continent in Dragondrums on her healing ingredient run. Toric could also apparently use some sturdy and strong young men to help him with the Southern Hold, implying that he could help with the problem of the young men who would otherwise fight each other. There's one last bit of business to conclude - when they were blown off course, Robinton and Menolly found a beautiful cove with a giant cone-shaped mountain in the distance. That took them nine days to sail back from to get to Southern, so there's a lot of land on the continent for Toric to send the young men out to settle and call their own. And that's the chapter. 

Cone-shaped mountain, huh? I'd keep a very close eye on it once I could see it, Toric. Not that you have any seismologists on Pern, but mountains with no top usually got that way explosively. We can probably deduce that the Ancients, whomever they were, probably got on the wrong end of one of those and fled northward to settle up where they were. (If we read the spoiler data, it will confirm our suspicions, but let's see if the narrative actually does it.)

I'm not going to go into Chapter 3's narrative at all, but I am going to mention that it is subtitled "Present Pass, 15.5.9". Which means that again, we're skipping at least a full Turn forward, if not two or more, between chapters. Which deprives us, yet again, of seeing growth, change, and action for people along the way. The main action of the story is picking up three full rotations of the planet after the first flight of Jaxom and Ruth, which is a huge amount of time and Threadfall for things to happen. If we can construct a full story for Menolly that takes just seven days, why are we spending three Turns setting this one up?

Secondly, this is the first time I've seen any sort of calendar-like marking at all in these Pern books. Since it's not actually in-text, I'm guessing this element is here to help readers figure out where in the Turn we are. But if that's the case, why have we gone with a Terra-like date system? There's no evidence to support it - the society here seems more inclined to keep time in increments of seven days (despite having no history of religion, so no Biblical origin stories to set the seven day week with) and in full revolutions of the planet. Maybe there's an intermediate temporal period related to the seasons, since there must be seasons to grow food and herd animals with, but it seems unlikely they would develop an "arbitrary divisions of time" calendar, unless dragonriders started to demand their tribute on a regular schedule, regardless of the season. That's contradicted by the panic at the beginning of Dragonflight about skimpy tributes that don't have enough in them to last the appropriate amount of time.

So, the best I can guess about this notation, based on what the narrative has told us about life on Pern, and the a-historical, counting from the present style, is that the first number refers to the current season (which could be named as simply as Cold, Hot, Rainy, Stormy, Snowy, and so forth, and which might coalesce into a regular calendar cycle) and the second refers to what day it is in that current season. 

Alternately, perhaps one of the numbers refers to which Fall this is during the current Turn, and the other number refers to which day it is of the current Fall (of which some arbitrary standard of "if it hasn't dropped Thread for X days in our region, this particular Fall is over" has been established) - which could loop in the timetables that the Benden Weyrleader was using to predict time and locale of the next drop.

Both of these systems can create calendar variance, but that will likely eventually be smoothed out, now that Benden controls most things, so things are likely to be set in relation to Benden Standard Time. Except, perhaps, in the South, because they would never accept anything Benden.

Timekeeping in Pern has always been important, because time-traveling dragons, but this seems to be handwaving a lot and relying on the audience assuming that things are the same on Pern as they are on Terra, which, y'know, time-traveling dragons.

_[All of this speculation is entirely wrong, but it'll take us more than a few books to confirm what the calendar system actually is on Pern. I think it'll be one of the Todd books, in a prologue somewhere, that will explain that yes, the revolution of Pern about Rukbat takes substantially the same number of days that it does for Terra to orbit Sol, that each day is approximately the same number of hours, and that rather than bothering with leap years and the vagueries of the Terran calendar at all, Pern has a thirteen-month calendar with each month exactly 28 days, with one additional day on the end that's not part of any month (and therefore can be used to soak up any differences between sidereal and calendar time). So, indeed, it is an "arbitrary divisions of time" calendar, based completely on the Terran model, which is very conveniently perfectly accurate to Pern. Despite a complete lack of anything about Pern that suggests this calendar would be the one that's been adopted and used unchangingly for thousands of years._

_There's also a lot of story that's being skipped over here that could be important. It would probably have been a better idea to start the story where Jaxom is of age where we won't need to jump through the years to make a coherent narrative, and instead have all of these things relayed to us in flashback or in more modern examples of the same things._

_At this point in the narrative, as well, we haven't fully transformed Toric from "the person Benden put in charge at Southern" to "the greedy, grasping thorn in the side of progress and the agenda of Benden" that he's going to be in later books, or by the end of this one, so that's another thing worth keeping in mind as we go along.]_


	4. Respect My Authoritah!

Last chapter, we spent time setting up Dragondrums and finding a solution to the problem of too many sons, not enough space. And I complained more about timekeeping.

**The White Dragon, Chapter 3: Content Notes: None for this segment**

Chapter Three begins with Jaxom mad as hell and not going to take it any more, informing the other fosterlings and Deelan that he will be going to the Smithcrafthall, where he will be treated with proper respect.

> This time it would not be Jaxom, however young a Lord of Ruatha Hold he still was, who apologized for his behavior. The enormous backlog of similar incidents, manfully swallowed or overlooked for any number of logical reasons, swept aside every consideration except to put as much distance between himself and his invidious position, his too reasonable and conscientious guardian and the obnoxious group of people who mistook daily intimacy for license.  
>  [...Jaxom finds Ruth and the two head to their secret hideaway...]  
>  **Why do you let _them_ upset you**? Ruth asked, his eyes whirling with love and affection for his weyrmate.
> 
> "A very good question," Jaxom replied after a full moment's consideration. "But they know exactly how." Then he laughed. "This is where all that objectivity Robinton talks about ought to operate...and doesn't."  
>  **The Masterharper is honored for his wisdom.** Ruth sounded uncertain, and his tone made Jaxom smile.
> 
> He was always being told that dragons had no ability to understand abstract concepts or complex relationships. Too often Ruth surprised him with remarks that cast doubt on the theory. Dragons, particularly Ruth in Jaxom's biased opinion, obviously perceived far more than others credited to them. Even Weyrleaders like F'lar or Lessa or even N'ton.

I seem to recall, way back in Dragonquest, that Jaxom has both virtues of perception and empathy, both of which are on display here. Considering how Mnementh adjusted the Benden Weyrleader's arrival point when he was coming in hot, and the connections that Lessa and Brekke both leveraged through their dragons, and the fabulous discussion of fire lizard genetics and purposes we have been having since they were introduced, I'd say if Jaxom has been able to deduce or collect some of the knowledge that Menolly has about fire lizards and combine it with his own knowledge of dragons through Ruth, Jaxom probably knows the most about the mental capabilities of dragons.

I'd also like to believe that Jaxom is misreading Ruth as uncertain and that Ruth is actually snarking Robinton. Because, from what we've seen in terms of Robinton's vaunted wisdom, he comes up short. He covers it with information and craftiness, but a school administrator that can't expel students that tried to kill another student fails horribly in the wisdom department forever. Even though, at the time of this writing, those incidents hadn't been written yet. Even though they may have already happened in Pern time.

There's also something systematic going on here with Jaxom, and it's that Dorse is dismissive of Ruth, Lytol is too concerned about Ruth's health, and it appears that Deelan had started to play favorites and try to insinuate herself into Jaxom's good graces for when he comes into his majority and takes over. So we have yet another sequence of a bullied child (this would be two of three, based on publication, but considering we just came off two books where the main character is bullied heavily, it would be nice if that wasn't the case here). Jaxom wonders why it torqued him so hard today, when he theoretically is in control of the whole Hold and they're his subjects, and he's been dealing with it for day after day after day without issue.

Since Pern still has no mental health experts to help, and Jaxom is still young, he has no access to the idea that microaggressions still add up over time, or to spoon theory, or, for that matter, to a support network other than Ruth. Mind you, Ruth is excellent as a best friend and the anchor of a support network, but all of these bullied kids in Pern are isolated and lack friends during the period of their bullies attacking them.

I'm still a bit ish-y about Ruth deciding to frame it as Jaxom letting the others get to him, because it runs far too close to the still-useless advice that kids get about dealing with problems - "ignore it and it goes away". No, actually, it doesn't. Kids, generally, mature and then realize what kind of heels they have been to others, or changes in biology result in changes of behavior, but it's not usually the case that bullies just decide to give up on someone who is ignoring them. And, y'know, Jaxom's capacity for dealing with shit is not necessarily as big as Ruth's. Jaxom gets extra frustration because he thinks having power means he'll be able to use it to remake things to his liking. If only he could wield it. And all the sympathetic adults are elsewhere. Jaxom could really just use a parent.

(As an aside, at Ruatha, 5.9 is apparently just past winter. For what good that does in trying to figure out what it means.)

Jaxom goes introspective, realizing the cause of his anger is that he's not being allowed to exercise any of the roles that he supposedly has - neither rider nor Holder. His progression understands that Lytol will give up being regent only in death, and that the dragonriders won't let Ruth join the fighting wings (although I doubt anyone has bothered to stop and tell Jaxom what we learned earlier - that the are enough dragons to cover the fighting needs, so there's no reason to risk Ruth or Jaxom). Ruth demonstrates more of that ability that dragons supposedly don't have and provides Jaxom with perspective.

> **You are a dragonrider. You are also,** and Ruth said this slowly as if trying to understand it all himself, **a Lord Holder. You are a student with the Mastersmith and the Masterharper. You are a friend of Menolly, Mirrim, F'lessan and N'ton. Ramoth knows your name. So does Mnementh. And they know me. You have to be a lot of people. That is hard.**

That's…solid advice. It is hard enough for regular humans to be all the roles that we expect them to be. Adding in dragons and temporal power has to be tough, especially as a trailblazer that nobody else truly is like...or that has anything close to.

Also, Ruth gives Jaxom a great compliment by saying that Ramoth and Mnementh know his name, since dragons generally refer to people by pictures of them, instead of by their name. Since it's not something dragons do as a matter of course, that will hopefully help him feel better. Having Menolly, Mirrim, or F'lessan actually there to help him with issues and bullies and such would be even better, but one is running errands for Robinton and the other two are dragonriders-in-training.

Now that Ruth has had a bath, and N'ton has sent Tris to find Jaxom and Ruth, we find out that Ruth has one other talent that makes him unique. There's a quick time-shift jump to the Smithcrafthall, and Ruth can apparently hit his spots on space-time much more precisely than many other dragons.

> **I always know _when_ I'm going,** Ruth replied, not at all perturbed. **That's something few other dragons can say.**
> 
> They were barely in a landing circle above the Smithcrafthall complex before N'ton's great bronze, Lioth, burst into the air above them.
> 
> "And how you know how to time it that close, I'll never know," Jaxom said.
> 
> **Oh,** Ruth said easily, **I heard _when_ the brown returned to N'ton and just came to that** when.

"Heard" is an odd verb to use there. It makes Ruth out to have some form of space-time SONAR that can discern the coordinates of every ping when a dragon or fire lizard hops into hyperspace or returns from there. Maybe Ruth can also read the EXIF data from pictures sent by fire lizards and dragons as well, and it helps keep him tuned appropriately to where and when he is. Still, if Ruth always knows his coordinates, he's a candidate for being able to run backward and forward to collect the lost knowledge of the Ancients and bring it forward to the current time. Or to be able to send a slide deck of images to others to get them back and forward safely.

N'ton has Jaxom's riding jacket with him, which he collected from Deelan after asking after Jaxom. "Can't stand weeping women-at least women that age" N'ton says, which makes me wonder what kind of age he thinks weeping women are appropriate at…and what it is that he's done to them that has them crying.

Actually, no I don't. I have enough examples of abuse to last until the end of the series. So Jaxom tells N'ton about his explosion at the Hold that day, and what he has come to understand about it. N'ton is sympathetic, but still firm about Jaxom not being a dragonrider, as much as Lytol is firm about him learning all about being a Lord Holder. N'ton also understands, though, that Jaxom needs to have some sort of purpose, and promises to talk to the Benden Weyrleaders about it.

Because this chapter wants to pile on all the revelations, even though it's only a short chapter, I'm going to pause here and pick up with the chapter again next week.


	5. Learning About One's Ancestors

Last time, Jaxom found out that Ruth has a much more accurate time sense than your standard dragon, and may even have the ability to feel pings or read time data out of fire lizard pictures. Jaxom also blew up at the accumulated microaggressions and is feeling without a purpose. Right now, a gathering of students is at the Smithcrafthall.

**The White Dragon: Chapter 3: Content Notes: Misogyny**

Finally inside the Smithcrafthall, Jaxom joins many others to listen to Wansor, keeper of the telescope, display the star charts that have been crafted from many nights of staring into the sky. Well, everyone else is listening to Wansor. Jaxom is trying to think of ways to get Ruth firestone, since N'ton gave a tacit blessing for them to try it, while maintaining plausible deniability. When Jaxom's attention returns to Wansor, he finds out that thanks to astronomy being a surviving discipline from the Ancients, it is now possible to chart the path of all the heavenly bodies. Which serves to prove the Benden Weyrleader right from a previous book - a blue star and a yellow star have been interfering with the regular orbit of the Red Star and changing the Threadfall schedules. Once clear of their influences, the timetables Benden distributed will work again. And they will know the next time the Pass begins, and can calculate when interference will happen again.

Everyone here is gathered so that such knowledge gets widely spread and passed down through the generations, so that when it's needed, there's no forgetting. The idea of cross-crafting has taken hold and so people from other crafts, as well as dragonriders and Holders, are all supposed to learn from each other, exchange ideas, and learn the scientific method and apply it to their own lives. F'lessan takes the spirit of the idea and runs with it.

> "I wonder if we can use Wansor's equations to go ahead in time safely." F'lessan mused.
> 
> "You deadglow! You can't go to a time that hasn't happened!" Mirrim answered him tartly before the others could. "How would you know what's happening? You'd end up in a cliff or in a crowd, or surrounded by Thread! It's dangerous enough to go back in time when at least you can check on what happened or on who was there. Even then you could, and **you** would, muddle things. Forget it, F'lessan!"
> 
> "Going ahead could serve no logical purpose at this time," Benelek remarked in his sententious way. 
> 
> "It'd be fun," F'lessan said, undeterred. "Like knowing what the Oldtimers are planning. Flar's sure they're going to try something. They've been far too quiet down there."

Of course, having Future Knowledge could change the path that gets taken so that the expected action doesn't happen. And Mirrim is right about possibly telefragging oneself in the future. Presumably, the equations would prevent appearing in the middle of a Threadfall, but there's always the possibility of appearing where someone else is. You'd need really clear pictures...or a dragon that can hit their spots with pinpoint accuracy.

Also, F'lessan takes after his mother a lot - immediately finding a possible use for the equations, and having a willingness to give it a run, even with possible consequences, including death or serious injury. So, way back in Dragonquest, I mentioned that Felessan's role was action to Jaxom's thinking. As a dragonrider, it appears F'lessan retains the action role, and so he would be a good combination to work and do things that would normally get Jaxom in trouble, but that F'lessan could do to relieve the issues that Jaxom is feeling and dealing with at Ruatha. Fistfights worked for Menolly and Piemur...

As if to prove this division of responsibility is intentional...

> F'lessan gave his boyhood friend a long measuring look. "You know, I used to think this school idea was a good one. Now I think it's turned the whole lot of us into do-nothing talkers! And thinkers!" He rolled his eyes upward in disgust. "We talk, we think everything to death. We never do anything. At least we have to do first and think later when we fight Thread!"  
>  [...F'lessan is distracted by a food tray...]  
>  "That F'lessan!" Menolly said at his ear. "He wants to keep glory in the bloodline. A bit of derring-do..." and her sea-blue eyes danced with laughter as she added, "for me to tune about!" Then she sighed. "And he's not the type at all. **He** doesn't think beyond himself. But he's got a good heart. C'mon! We'd better lend a hand with the food."
> 
> "Let us **do!** " Jaxom's quip was rewarded by Menolly's smile of appreciation.
> 
> There was merit in both viewpoints, Jaxom decided as he relieved an overburdened woman of a tray of steaming meatrolls, but he'd **think** about it later.

As I was saying, but before we can think too much on how F'lessan is not-thinking like a dragon and Jaxom is thinking like someone with competing responsibilities, F'lessan drags Jaxom off to have a look at the customary gathering of fire lizards chattering with each other and looking at Ruth. Jaxom mentions that the fire lizards have some very "fascinating and unlikely" pictures that they share with Ruth, and Menolly points out that the fire lizards have some form of memory, possibly extending all the way back to the First Shell, and that their fear of the Red Star predates anyone else knowing about its dangers, too. But the construction is odd:

> "So, fire-lizards have memories."
> 
> "Ah, leave off, Menolly. You can't ask me to believe that fire-lizards could remember things Man can't?"

Which is slang that's not really in evidence, based on the culture? And is a surprising departure from Jaxom's usual perceptive and reflective self. Menolly adds on that it's not just her, but Mirrim as well that's concerned about fire lizard memories. Which means both experts on fire lizard behavior are worried about this. Jaxom, pay attention.

And then we have this exchange to close out the chapter.

> Menolly's eyes glinted with devilment as she beckoned him closer, as if anyone were near enough to hear what they'd been saying. "I hear Lord Groghe fancies you for that beast-bosomed third daughter of his."
> 
> Jaxom groaned in horror.
> 
> "Don't worry, Jaxom. Robinton squashed the idea. He wouldn't do you a disservice there. Of course," Menolly glanced him from the corners of her laughing eyes, "if you have anyone else in mind, now's the time to say so."
> 
> Jaxom was furious, not with Menolly but with her news, and it was hard to disassociate tidings and bearer.
> 
> "The one thing I don't want just now is a wife."
> 
> "Oh? Got yourself taken care of?"
> 
> "Menolly!"
> 
> "Don't look so shocked. We Harpers understand the frailties of human flesh. And you're tall, and nice-looking, Jaxom. Lytol's supposed to be giving you instructions in all the arts..."
> 
> "Menolly!"
> 
> "Jaxom!" She mimicked his tone perfectly. "Doesn't Lytol ever let you off to have some fun on your own? Or do you just **think** about it? Honestly, Jaxom," her tone became acerbic and her expression registered impatience with him, "between Robinton, though I love the man, and Lytol, F'lar, Lessa, and Fandarel, I think they've turned you into a pale echo of themselves. Where is Jaxom?"

Again with the mishandling of characters. Unless, that is, this is post-Dragondrums Menolly, who had a time on the boat with Sebell because of the fire lizard mating, and who is apparently also completely over her upbringing and the traumatic experiences she had at the Harper Hall when she first arrived. Which, considering the complete lack of mental health professionals...well, it's unlikely. Not impossible, but Menolly's trauma line doesn't seem like it would be fixable just by doing what she loves to do.

So it doesn't seem like Menolly is the character to be giving Jaxom grief about his lack of women, nor would she, as the victim of _bullying about her appearance_ , be the kind of character to refer to another woman as "beast-bosomed" as an insult. This scene should have been done between F'lessan and Jaxom, and it would read much better - F'lessan, as a dragonrider, is much more likely to have picked up the misogyny run rampant throughout Pernese society. It would still be awful and horrible, but it would at least be consistently characterized. That's not saying much, though.

Jaxom resolves not to storm off from Menolly's ribbing, and also resolves to find Ruth firestone secretly as a way of showing how much he's a man and Ruth is a dragon. Thus ends Chapter 3.

_[I'm still annoyed with the characterization of Menolly here and in Dragondrums, because it's transforming Menolly into one of the Mean Girls she desperately hated during her time at the Harper Hall. Especially with the Son of the Benden Weyrleaders around to espouse all of those very bro-culture things that he would have picked up from being part of a Weyr for as long as Jaxom has been part of his hold. I don't know what the author was thinking for this, taking her sympathetic character and making her decidedly unsympathetic and teasing Jaxom about things that I would have expected to be either traumatic or too close to traumatic for her to do._

__

__

_If we must absolutely have some woman ribbing Jaxom about his manliness and the supposedly "beast-bosomed" girl waiting for him (which is in itself a strange taunt, considering how much good childbearing hips and big breasts would be prized in such a low tech world as Pern) as a potential match, Mirrim is also right there and would have been marinated in toxic dragonrider culture at least as much as the Son of the Benden Weyrleaders. I would object to it coming from her as well, because she would be imperfect for it, but she would be more likely to be that kind of candid with Jaxom than Menolly would be. Especially since Menolly was established as someone who has been advocating for Jaxom over time and against all the people who were telling him he couldn't be any of the things that he was going to become.]_


	6. !

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ! of the title is [the sound and graphic that appears when an opponent in the Metal Gear Solid series has been alerted to the presence of its protagonist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P5qbcRAXVk).

Last time, the revelations came quickly - the telescope means Threadfall can be predicted with proper accuracy, even when other planets interfere, the fire lizards appear to have some form of memory, something Ruth appears to have as well, which might give a strange credence to the idea that Ruth is an "overgrown fire lizard", instead of its usual insulting context, and Menolly had her characterization ignored to deliver a message in favor of impulsive action, supporting F'lessan's approach to problems instead of Jaxom's default mode of thinking before action.

**The White Dragon, Chapter Four: Content Notes: Misogyny, objectification**

(Dating sequence says this chapter covers 15.5.10 to 15.5.16, so the second number is the day during whatever partial-year time division the 5 represents.)

Chapter Four starts with Jaxom trying to get away to get time for Ruth to chew some firestone. Which is easier said than done, as Lytol is filling his schedule to the breaking point, and no matter where he tries to go with Ruth, fire lizards from the Hold always follow. Deelan's green and the blue of Brand, the steward, are everywhere Ruth is, slightly delayed. Jaxom is pretty sure he can't get Deelan to call off her green, but he thinks he can work Brand in to getting the pursuit squad called off, based on his reputation - he was called in to curb the "lustiness" of the fosterlings and accomplished it. As Jaxom arrives to talk with Brand, two drudges are being told that if they don't present tunnel snake corpses to show they're taking care of the problem, they won't be fed for a few days. Which makes me wish that we saw how this society looks from the viewpoint of the drudges more often - when we see them, or when main characters disguise themselves as drudges, we see nearly constant heavy and hard work under the threat of abuse, starvation, and other punishments, without much reward, or, as Lessa demonstrated at the beginning of Dragonflight, basic necessities like warmth and blankets. This whole society is built on the backs of a permanent underclass that is taken entirely for granted.

So Jaxom has a chat with Brand.

> "Occasionally," Jaxom hurried on, "a fellow likes to get off by himself, completely by himself. And, as **you** know, fire-lizards are the world's greatest gossips. They might get the wrong impression...if you know what I mean?"
> 
> Brand did but, if he was amused or surprised, he dissembled well.
> 
> "I do apologize, Lord Jaxom. An oversight, I assure you. You know how anxious Deelan used to be when you and Ruth started flying **between** and the fire-lizards followed as a safeguard. I should have long ago altered that arrangement."
> 
> "Since when am I Lord Jaxom to you, Brand?"
> 
> The steward's lips actually twitched. "Since the other morning...Lord Jaxom."
> 
> "I didn't mean it like that, Brand."
> 
> Brand inclined his head slightly, forestalling further apology. "As Lord Lytol remarked, you are well old enough to be confirmed in your rank, Lord Jaxom, and we-" Brand grinned with uninhibited ease, "-should act accordingly."

So, apparently, Jaxom's outburst at the table has convinced everyone that he's a man now, and this conversation with Brand is the assumption that Jaxom has his eye on romancing someone. If we hadn't had Menolly asking inappropriate questions on Jaxom's sexuality last chapter, would this appear to be as double-entrendre-laden as it does here? What Jaxom said could just as easily refer to masturbation as it does to firestone as it does to sex. It's a framing device to bring the audience along in snickering at Jaxom's inexperience. Jaxom himself realizes he's going to have to find a girl to maintain pretenses, based on the cultural assumption that Holder sons would dally with other women. Specifically:

> He should have told Menolly that he had no trouble with any of the Holder girls...when he was of the mind. Not that he had followed some of the bawdier fosterlings' examples. He wasn't going to have the reputation of a lecher like Meron or that young fool of Lord Laudy's, whom Lytol had sent back to his home Hold with a cover excuse that no one really believed. It was all right for the Lord Holder to beget a few half-bloods, quite another to dilute Holder Blood with other lines. Nonetheless, he would have to find a pleasant girl to give him the alibi he needed, and then take the time for more important things.

Welcome to the Pernese Double Standard, Jaxom. Young noble men getting noble women pregnant is just standard operations, nothing to be concerned about. Yet dragonrider women, if they choose to sleep with others, and even if those men are Lord Holders, will be regularly slut-shamed. Also, where is Jaxom going to find a young Holder woman who will willingly play along with being his date? (Everywhere, if they're aware enough about what their life is going to be like...) The fearlessly misogynist world has boys being sent around to other Holds, but the only thing I've seen so far about girls going elsewhere is taking lessons at the Harper Hall, so Jaxom is not going to have an easy time of finding a suitable girl to be his excuse. (And that assumes Jaxom is interested in girls at all, which is not yet facts in evidence.)

So, with a sea change underway at Ruatha, Jaxom takes Ruth out to hunt, and his chosen target for food (wherries) has the herder, a holder, out taking care of the flock. Said herder requests of Lytol a fire-lizard egg, so that he can use the accompanying fire lizard to kill the snakes that eat some of each of his wherry egg clutches. After the herder (Tegger) suggests a spot for Ruth and goes on his way, Ruth demonstrates another thing that dragons aren't supposed to do.

> Tegger was unlikely to Impress a fire-lizard, Jaxom thought as he leaped to Ruth's shoulder.
> 
> Ruth agreed. **That man had an egg once. The little one went _between_ and never returned to its hatching place.**
> 
> "How did you remember that?"
> 
> **The fire-lizards told me.**
> 
> "When?"
> 
> **When it happened. I have just remembered it.** Ruth sounded very pleased with himself. **They tell me many things that are interesting when you're not with me.**

Long-term memory in a dragon, as well. Ruth is shaping up to be a dragon unlike any other in more than just pigmentation.

As Ruth hunts, Jaxon reflects on the duties of a Lord Holder, and how everybody always changes the subject whenever Fax comes up as a possible topic of conversation. His mother, everyone will talk about, but nobody wants to discuss his dad, or whether they're afraid that Fax's ambition will manifest in him and he'll want to go on a conquering rampage. (Given that he has a dragon, he could probably mount a more successful campaign than Fax did, at least until Benden dispatched a wing to shut him down.) He returns to the problem of firestone and fire-lizards, and when Jaxom asks Ruth whether he could get the fire lizards to go away, Ruth says that they would come to see whatever it was that had Ruth asking them to go away. Since fire lizards talk amongst themselves, Jaxom is sure he needs a space clean of fire lizards before he can train with Ruth on how to use firestone.

The action shifts to put Jaxon, Lytol, and one of the fosterling sons at one of Lytol's vassals, Fidello, where they intend to test a new wheat seed for the Masterfarmer. Southern crops have grown well and been resistant to blight, so now it's time to see if it will do the same in Northern climate. Which gives the boys time to eat and for the fosterling, Tordril, to comment on how pretty this Fidello's sister is, as she serves them klah. Considering how vested the narrative is in taking about how women are the keepers of the household, and how comments of beauty and subservience are often linked, I don't think that it's an accident that Tordril talks beauty while being served. Tordril tries to chat her up, but she's apparently only got eyes and smiles for Jaxom. So Tordril tries to tell Jaxom that he should get to know her better.

> "I wonder would you have got her so quick if I'd been Lord of Ruatha?" Tordril asked Jaxom as they checked their saddle girths before mounting.
> 
> "Got her?" Jaxom stared blankly at Tordril. "We only chatted."
> 
> "Well, you could have her next time you...ah, have a chance to chat. Or does Lytol mind a few half-bloods around? Father says it keeps the full ones on their toes! Ought to be easy for you with Lytol weyrbred, and not as stuffy about such things."
> 
> Lytol and Fidello joined them at that point but Tordril's envious comment set Jaxom's thoughts on a very fruitful track. What was her name? Corana? Well, Corana could be very useful. There was only the one fire-lizard about the Plateau Hold - and, if Ruth could just dissuade that creature from following them...

Nor do I think it an accident that we have had an entire discussion about how pretty the woman is, how Tordril sees her as a possession that has apparently been claimed by Jaxom through no effort of his own, and that Tordril encourages Jaxom to see her the same way and take sexual advantage of her before the narrative gives us her name. Tordril and Fidello were named before we saw them in action. Corana only gets named _after_ her sexual virtues and her appearance are discussed, and only because Jaxom struggles with remembering her name. He's being taught and encouraged to see women as interchangeable things, not even worthy of having names first. And Tordril thinks that Jaxom will have an easier path to having sex with Corana because Weyr culture is always told to be sexually promiscuous and permissive, even though the reality that we've seen in these books is anything but, with perhaps the exception of Kylara, who met a bad end at the hands of the narrative, one that the other characters think she deserved. The awful compounds.

So Jaxom thinks he's found the perfect spot for Ruth to chew firestone - only one fire lizard to deal with, and a perfectly good cover in chatting up (and more) Corana. After pilfering a bag from the watch dragon's stores, and manufacturing an excuse to deliver an extra bag of wheat seed to Fidello, it's time to put the plan into action. It's successful - Ruth can chew firestone and spit flame, but it's not particularly big and not particularly sustained. I think some part of it is that they talk about "belching" the fire, when it seems like the technique in question would be more like whistling, playing a brass instrument, or the circus firebreathing trick - all three focus on the breath being important for sustained flame. Belch lets all the gas out at once.

After the experiment, to solidify his alibi, Jaxom goes to see Corana, who gives him a hint about how to avoid detection (he smells like firestone) and when he flies back from gathering withies, getting a few kisses in and deciding she's not going to be an excuse for him any more. Okay, so Jaxom does like women, I guess. After a bath and cleaning the clothes, he and Ruth do a short temporal hop backward so he only looks like he's been gone long enough for a dalliance. And then Ruth vomits firestone ash in the middle of their Hold, forcing Jaxom into a hurry-up cleaning so as not to give away the whole thing. So the chapter ends with Jaxom taking more firestone to try things again.


	7. The Inverse of Characterization

Last chapter, Jaxom and Ruth successfully managed firestone. And a relationship for Jaxom. And Ruth apparently remembers things that happened in the past. Let's see if all of these things continue, or whether they collapse in a house-of-cards way.

**The White Dragon: Chapter V: Content Notes: Genocidal intent, sexism**

(15.5.26)

Chapter 5 starts with an agitated fair of fire lizards saying the dragons are angry when Jaxom and Ruth arrive at the Harper Hall for a lesson with the star equations and charts. The reason they're angry is because someone has stolen Ramoth's queen egg, and Benden is ready to raze Southern to the ground to take it back. To make things worse, after stealing the egg, the thieves did a time-skip to temporalities unknown.

Which brings me to a problem that has been plaguing this series since the beginning - problems are only introduced in this series after we see their solutions. After we find out that dragons can time-travel, there's the issue of Thread falling out of pattern, which can be solved by time-shifting dragons. After we Impress fire-lizards, then we start talking about problems of too many lizards or how to take care of them. We already have Menolly, the exceptional Harper, before she runs into the problems of "Harpers can't be girls". After we know that Ruth knows when he is and can collect time data from fire lizard images, we have a problem where dragons have disappeared to an arbitrary time point and someone has to find them. This is the inverse of how most novels work. Or they introduce the solution in the first chapter, the problem in the tenth, and the rediscovery of the solution in the twentieth. So that the reader isn't just waiting for the narrative to catch up to what they already know.

Benden is very much ready to burn all of the Southern Weyr to ash, as Menolly informs Jaxom that the stealing is because the Southern queens haven't mated, and even their greens aren't producing eggs, but everyone is distracted by the sudden reappearance of the queen egg in its proper place, aged about ten days or so. Which calls off the war drums, but leaves a stable time loop for someone (I wonder who) to go through.

And by "calls off the war drums", I mean "convinces Lessa not to go on a [Roaring Rampage of Revenge](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RoaringRampageOfRevenge)". I'm not sure how much of this exchange is Lessa and how much is Ramoth, really, but earlier in the book, Lessa had apparently assumed the Benden Weyrleader's hotheaded streak without anyone noticing.

> "Whoever took that egg kept it at least ten days or more." they [Jaxom and Menolly] heard Lessa saying angrily. "This demands action."
> 
> "The egg is back safely," Robinton said, trying to calm her.
> 
> "Are we cowards to ignore such an insult?" she asked the other dragonmen, turning away from Robinton's calmer words.
> 
> "If to be brave," Robinton's voice laid scorn on the quality, "means to pit dragon against dragon, I'd rather be a coward."
> 
> Lessa's white-hot outrage noticeably cooled.
> 
> **Dragon against dragon**. The words echoed through the crowd. The thought turned sickeningly in Jaxom's mind and he could feel Menolly beside him shutting off the implications of such a contest.

Ah, okay. So it's still Crossing the Line for dragons to fight each other. From a practical perspective, this makes sense. Dragons fighting each other means that the people who are on the ground, no matter their rank or importance to history or the world, die. If the combined might of several Lord Holders quailed and couldn't even be in the presence of one dragon, the people who aren't dragonriders are _very invested_ in dragons not fighting. Terran history says the non-mounted class fares extremely poorly, in terms of the land being laid to waste, the people being pressed into service, their possessions stolen, and so forth, whenever the nobles go to war. So it's good to know that Robinton, even though he's fully behind Benden, is still much more fully behind his own survival.

Continuing...

> "The egg was some **when** for long enough to be brought to hatching hardness," Lessa went on, her face set with her anger. "It's probably been handled by their candidate. It could have been influenced enough so that the fledgling can't Impress here."
> 
> "No one has proved how much an egg is influenced by pre-Hatching contact," Robinton was saying in his most persuasive voice. "Or so you've had me understand any number of times. Short of dumping their candidate on top of the egg when it hatches, I can't think their conniving can do them any good or the egg any more harm."

Someone should ask Jaxom and Ruth about that...and also, was nobody keeping records about the experiment in Dragonflight where the candidates were able to touch and handle the eggs before they hatched? They should at least have an inkling of whether or not candidates handling eggs predisposes dragons to match. (Path will be an outlier, but that's because Mirrim is.)

Additionally, unless Ramoth has an instinctive knowledge of which eggs are hers, nobody actually knows whether the egg deposited there is the original one that was stolen. Since the egg disappeared to time unknown, this could be several generations descended from the original stolen egg. It could be a green's egg that looks like a queen egg. Since the way things were has been radically upset at this point, why trust that the returned egg is the same? Because you assume Southern wouldn't return an egg at all, even though they know that would bring Benden's wrath? Less assuming, more thinking, Benden.

Lessa's first solution is to ban fire lizards entirely, since they're gossips. Cooler heads suggest teaching fire lizards to identify themselves, as dragons are being taught to do, and marking the fire lizards with colors to indicate their origins. Which makes me nervous, because that suggests they haven't thought about friend-or-foe identification before. Despite having exiled riders. Despite having had campaigns conducted against them by Holders. And it's the people who have already created a solution with fire lizards who are taking about this problem with dragons. Solutions precede their problems in Pern. Seems like the best way to avoid problems, then, is to not think - if no solution is invented, its corresponding problem will never show up.

Lessa still wants fire lizards away from her and Ramoth. Jaxon returns to Ruth and Ruth informs him that the fire lizards are frightened of something big. Not Ramoth, not the prospect of warring dragons, but something else they were remembering. Not enough to give Ruth anything clear, but it makes his head hurt, certainly. Perhaps Ruth and the fire lizards are sensitive to the temporal flux associated with events like these?

The next paragraph indicates I have anticipated the story again in my criticism, as Robinton is cursing himself for believing that the Southern Weyr would respect tradition (tradition!) regarding the sanctity of a Hatching Ground when in a life-or-death situation. He also realizes that even if he was able to come to the right conclusion, he wouldn't have been able to convince Benden of what was about to happen. Running down a list of likely suspects...

> T'kul must have been the motivating force - T'ron had lost all his vigor and initiative after that duel with F'lar. Robinton was reasonably certain the two Weyrwomen, Merika and Mardra, had no part in the plan; they wouldn't wish to be deposed by a young queen and her rider.

_[Cocowhat Number One]_

That's a shoddy line of reasoning, especially considering the alternative is the _death of the entire Weyr_. (Also, I think that's the first time we've seen Merika's name.) Perhaps in an alternate universe, people lose their ambition when bested in single combat, but from what I've seen so far of Pern, stubbornness in the face of anything but impossible odds seems a staple trait.

Robinton still doesn't know what to do with Lessa, since she is capable of "sustaining the unthinking frenzy" of the morning, with results "as much of a disaster for Pern as the first Threadfall had been."

_[Cocowhat Number Two]_

I thought the whole issue with Lessa jumping back to just before the long Interval was that she was using a tapestry with no supporting imagery or records to do the hop into times unknown. But if Robinton knows there is a First Fall, and also what happened then, the records must be a lot more compete than previously known. It also throws this timekeeping system entirely out the window - if you know when the first point was, them everyone should be referring to this Pass by which iteration it is, not as the "present pass" with an unknown time in the past where any number of Passes could have happened. Dragons may be able to live and think about an eternal present, but humans do not, and especially not humans that keep records of things that show what is going on now has happened before.

When not messing with space-time through offhand remarks, Robinton is clinging to the idea that an egg replaced the one that was stolen, requiring great skill in popping in and out unnoticed, as reason for hope against an all-out dragon war. He assumes someone at Southern foresaw the consequences and returned the egg to forestall it. I'd like to see the orphaned future where the egg wasn't returned and fire rained from the heavens, destroying all in its path. Mostly because I think it would give The Day of Lavos a run for its money in pure cinematic destructiveness. But also because it would be an object lesson on what happens when everyone is stubbornly inflexible.

Robinton is soon joined by Fandarel, who understands that something must be both done and not done about the incident, Brekke, recovered fully and firmly on the side of fire lizards being harmless and not at fault, because she believes they have no sense of wrong and right, and Brekke's rapist, who follows the Benden Weyrleaders in opinion on what to do.

Lessa is still ready to fly off on revenge as the assembled war council settles in, but Robinton is having none of it. Just in case we aren't on the same page, this is "I plotted my revenge against Fax for ten years, enduring all that time as a drudge, with the accompanying abuse" Lessa who wants to go out and fight dragons against each other. The "I can influence people's minds with my own to get them to do what I want, so long as I'm not obvious about it" Weyrwoman, now calling for the most obvious solution to the problem of theft. The cosmic retcon underway is pretty audacious, I must say.

Robinton tries to pull Lessa off the offensive by pointing out the egg's return means the failure of Southern to rejuvenate themselves, as now all the northern Weyrs will be on their guard against egg pilfering. (Setting aside the reality of _time-traveling dragons_ , that is, which would actually necessitate warning the past as well as the present against these actions, which would alleviate the need to warn them because the theft doesn't happen, so the past isn't warned, etc. Unstable Time Loops are not so great.) He also tries to spin it as a matter of flattery that Ramoth's egg was targeted, before leaving an argument for the Benden Weyrleader to seize on and run with: the cause for revenge left when the egg returned. 

The argument basically proceeds the way Robinton wants it to, with each of Lessa's potential outs countered by someone else in the room, with Fandarel making Robinton's capstone point that the theft might have been more to sow discord in the alliance than to actually try and save the Southern dragons. The Benden Weyrleader vows (raising his right hand as surety) to revisit the issue if the dragon from the egg is somehow malformed or otherwise imperfect, but for now, Lessa is overruled, and leaves the room.

_[This is really a book where all of the characterizations that have been established in previous books are thrown out in favor of something new that the plot demands. Lessa is not a person with a hair-trigger temper, and her mate is not one who tends to take the long view, except, apparently, now they are. It's almost like the author realized that she's been consistently creating good women characters with agency and ability, and that those kinds of books aren't going to sell, so she's going to change things so that the menfolk do all the good thinking, acting, and ruling, while the women become increasingly cruel and histrionic so that those men can be calm and rational and effective leaders, comparatively speaking. It doesn't make sense at all for this to happen, and yet, here it is. Maybe there was something outside the stories themselves that influenced the characterization in this direction?]_

The Masterharper downs a cup in one drink and the Benden Weyrleader agrees to the premise of [I Need A Freaking Drink](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/INeedAFreakingDrink).

> "We could all use a cup," F'lar said, gesturing to the others to gather about as Brekke, rising quickly to her feet, began to serve them.

And Brekke, restored to her regular mental state, has returned to her Good Girl self, assuming the role of servitor she had with Kylara at Southern. Nobody finds this out of place, of course, because it's already been well-established that women are always the servers in dragonrider culture and the Men are the ones who do things. Brekke is also quite well-recovered at this point, considering she is around things that could potentially be triggering, like the Benden Weyrleader. And his brother. Who asks for Robinton and N'ton to join him and Brekke after everyone agrees its a good idea to not let Ramoth see fire lizards.

The fire lizards themselves appear to be having a collective memory of dragons flaming them, some sort of darkness, and then a picture of an egg. It's sending them into a tizzy, even though none of them know exactly from whom the memory comes. It will affect Ruth later at night, when he and a giant fair of fire lizards are sleeping with him. Robinton gathered intelligence from Piemur that the Southern Weyr had gotten more secretive lately, and the dragons started just popping in and out, possibly signifying training in time travel. When N'ton went to Southern to check for the egg, he found it deserted. But nobody knows what's is going on.

Jaxom and Menolly eventually get back to the Harper Hall, where the story is told, and eventually, Jaxom gets what he's supposed to get regarding Wansor's equations. Since Ruth is the fire lizard favorite, it's going to be more difficult for him to keep training in secret. Jaxom resolves to use the South, but to warp back at least twelve Turns so as to avoid anyone actually being there, and similarly to avoid fire lizards following.

And that is chapter five - revenge planned, dreams imparted, equations given.


	8. Looping the Temporal Loop

Last chapter, someone stole Ramoth's egg. Someone else returned an egg to Ramoth, aged some. Which, through some faulty logic, was enough to stop Lessa, she of the long game, from burning down Southern Weyr in revenge, which would have sparked a dragon war, resulting in the destruction of wide swaths of Pern.

**The White Dragon, Chapter VI-VII: Content Notes: Mansplaining, There Are No Social Workers On Pern**

(15.5.27-15.6.2)

Chapter Six burns a couple days in the marking of fire lizards and fighting Thread, now correctly predicted due to Wansor's new equations, before picking up with Ruth going hunting. There's a marked change in behavior for Ruth, though - he would normally kill things and let the fire lizard flock feast with him, but this time, he only kills one creature and keeps everything to himself.

> **I will not kill for them** , Ruth told Jaxom so fiercely that he wondered if Ruth might eventually flame the fire-lizards.
> 
> "What's the matter? I thought you liked them!" Jaxom met his dragon on the grassy slope and caressed him soothingly.
> 
> **They remember me doing something I do not remember doing. I did not do it.** Ruth's eyes whirled with red sparks.
> 
> "What do they remember you doing?"
> 
> **I haven't done it.** And there was a tinge of fearful uncertainty to Ruth's mental tone. **I know I haven't done it. I couldn't do such a thing. I am a dragon. I am Ruth! I am of Benden!** His last words sounded in a despairing tone.
> 
> "What do they remember you doing, Ruth? You've got to tell me."
> 
> Ruth ducked his head, as if he wished he could hide, but he turned back to Jaxom, his eyes wheeling piteously. **I wouldn't take Ramoth's egg. I know I didn't take Ramoth's egg. I was there by the lake all the time with you. I remember that. You remember that. They know where I was. But somehow they remember that I took Ramoth's egg too.**

So the fire-lizards have already been affected by things that have happened in the past, even though the dragon and rider have not yet done it in their timeline. Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey Ball and all that. (Best example of this - the 2005 Doctor Who Series 6 Christmas Special, "A Christmas Carol", where The Doctor messes with someone's past in real-time, displaying it to the person in the future he's trying to affect.)

I also find this much more satisfying as a narrative mystery - we have a sequence of events that have already happened, memories of what happened, but crucially, it's playing out as a locked-door mystery, where the real focus is on figuring out the why, rather than as a mystery where all we're waiting for is for the actors to fulfill their prescribed roles, or for the detective to appear and deduce everything in a Sherlock Scan.

Well, it was, anyway. It turns out that the fire lizards are getting after Ruth because they know he took the egg _back_ from Southern, and they want him to close the loop by going back in time to the spot where the Southern Weyr is hardening Ramoth's egg by using the volcanic sands that Southern will eventually become. Which is actually a good idea to do - dump the egg far enough back that dragons searching Southern won't find it, even if they search the early parts of the Weyr. If fire-lizards weren't such gossips, Southern would likely have been able to get away with it. At least, until someone started methodically searching the past for the egg and eventually discovered it, wiping out the alternate timeline where Southern succeeds.

Camouflaged appropriately, Ruth and Jaxom buzz the Southern guards, snag the egg and pop forward in time a small bit. They have to hop forward slowly, so that the cold of hyperspace doesn't kill the egg. Doing that by itself is complex, but the appearance of fire lizards not known to Jaxom or Ruth indicates pursuit pressure is coming shortly. So the two make an extra jump forward to try and shake pursuit before it arrives.

Which gives Jaxom time to contemplate just what kind of temporal tightrope he's walking:

> In **between** Jaxom had time to worry if he was making the jumps too long to keep the egg warm. It hadn't actually Hatched before he'd left. Maybe he should have waited, to see if the egg had Hatched properly: then they'd've known how to judge the forward jumps. Maybe he'd even killed the little queen trying to save her. No, his mind reeled with **between** and paradoxes; the most important act, returning the queen egg, was still in process. And dragon had not fought dragon - not yet.  
>  [...]  
>  **The fire-lizards?**
> 
> That had worried Jaxom, but he thought he had the answer. "They don't know who brought the egg back that day. There weren't any in the Hatching Ground, so they don't know what they haven't seen. Jaxom decided not to think further on that subject.

Admittedly, Jaxom doesn't have the additional complication of having to fix his own timeline so that things he's already done still happen in sequence, but with a different result, but someone still remembers what has already happened, so we're either dealing with Jaxom doing exactly what he was going to do anyway, or that the memory of the fire lizards creates a fixed point and Jaxom cannot do wrong, despite not actually knowing what he's doing, or reality unravels. Feel free to speculate. And to comment on why things like this are the reason why time travel rarely gets used as a principal plot point.

To hurry our thieves along, Threadfall catches them almost unaware, so they panic-jump back to the present, to the Hatching Ground, deposit the egg, and then hop to the mountain lake to discard the camouflage and try to numb the effects of being hit by Thread. Jaxom is down on their abilities to actually fight Thread, but Ruth points out that they were busy at the time with other things, so they can't call that a failure. Upon their return to Ruatha, Jaxom hears the queen hatched normally and healthily, and collects numbweed (which, I belatedly realize, is likely the Pernese equivalent of the aloe plant, just with its own (genetically engineered?) anesthetic packed inside or generated by the rendering process) to cover his injuries. The relief is enough to engender an appreciation for the salve and a greater willingness to tolerate the stink of its rendering.

Then, the whole thing blows up in his face when Lytol enters and sees the telltale marks of Threadscore.

> Jaxom waited then, facing Lytol calmly. He noticed, with a sadness for the inevitability of this moment of reserve, that Lytol's eyes were dark with emotion. He owed the man so much, never more than at this moment. He wondered that he had ever considered Lytol cold or hard and unfeeling.
> 
> "There's a trick of ducking Thread," Lytol said quietly, "that you'd better teach Ruth, Lord Jaxom."
> 
> "If you'd be kind enough to tell me how, Lord Lytol..."

Which, I suppose, is the best outcome for such a situation, even if it crushes Lytol's heart to know that his dragonrider ward is going to try and become a fighter over everyone's objections. Best, then, to train him properly so he doesn't get seriously injured or killed.

That's how chapter six ends - with little investigation into the how and the why someone stole a queen egg, how it came back, and with Lytol having to relive a time he was probably hoping to avoid, with nobody really thinking about what it would do to him to have a dragonrider ward, ever since Ruth hatched. There's a significant lack of support from everywhere for Lytol and Jaxom - no Holder support for raising Jaxom, no dragonrider support for helping Ruth, and everyone always half-hoping the situation resolves itself without having to intervene. Pern is a weird place when it comes to mental health issues.

_[And will continue to be throughout the entire series! So many things in these books could be resolved, mitigated, changed, or otherwise become much less of problems than they will be if only there were competent professionals around to help them with things. And that's not just for mental health issues, either. Competent professionals would be the solutions to a lot of other issues that are also going to crop up over time. They would just be the most immediately and consistently useful in mental health capacities.]_

Chapter Seven is a continuation of the conversation at the end of Chapter Six, as Lytol informs Jaxom that there are guests here to see him - N'ton, Menolly, and Robinton. Lytol, understanding that things are well past the point of no return, says that he'll recommend Jaxom for Weyrling training, so that he can learn the things he needs to with Ruth, and lets slip that he wishes Jaxom were older so that he could turn over Ruatha to him. Jaxom says he doesn't want it, and Lytol points out he wouldn't be able to step down anyway.

The assembled guests take one look at Jaxom and think immediately that he snuck off to fight Thread, prompting N'ton to indicate it's time for Jaxom to be trained properly in riding and fighting.

> "I'd rather he learned how to fly properly now, Robinton. With my other Weyrlings," N'ton interrupted unexpectedly, winning Jaxom's gratitude. "Particularly if he's mad enough, brave enough, to attempt it on his own without any guidance."  
>  "I doubt we could get Benden to approve." Robinton said, shaking his head.  
>  " **I** approve," Lytol said, his face set. "I am Lord Jaxom's guardian, not F'lar or Lessa. Let her manage her own concerns. Lord Jaxom is my charge. He can come to little harm with the Fort Weyrlings." Lytol stared fiercely at Jaxom. "And he will agree not to put his teaching to the test without consulting us. Will you abide by that, Lord Jaxom?"  
>  Jaxom was relieved enough that the Benden Weyrleaders would not be queried so that he agreed to more stringent conditions than he might have.  
>  [...]  
>  "I think I'll require a further promise of you, Jaxom," the bronze rider said. "No more timing it. You've been doing far too much of that lately. I can tell from your eyes."

Support! And possibly even defiance of Benden. It's a bit telling that Lytol refers solely to Lessa in the case of managing the concerns of Benden. Anyone who thinks the duties are shared equally between the Weyrleaders is... mistaken.

Also, Jaxom does not have a track record of obedience, back from his first appearance with Felessan when the two went exploring. Maturity may arrive with regard to Thread for long enough to learn what there is to know, but after that, Jaxom is likely to go off and do his own thing again. So that Lytol and the others expect him to promise and hold to it is not showing the necessary Genre Savvy that raising an adventurous teenager needs. I won't be surprised at all, however, if things get arranged behind the scenes such that Jaxom has someone watching him. The fire lizards worked before, but they probably won't now.

Since this meeting is supposedly about informing Jaxom of the gravity of the situation with regard to stolen eggs and Southern, Robinton gives us his characterization of Lessa:

> "Our Lessa is a woman of strong emotions, Jaxom - revenge being one of those most highly developed in her. Remember how you came to be Lord here?" Robinton's expression indicated regret for reminding Jaxom off his origin. "I do not belittle the Benden Weyrwoman when I say that. Such perseverance in the face of incredible odds is laudable. But her tenacity over the insult could be disastrous for all Pern. So far, reason has prevailed, but currently that balance is shaky indeed."

Uh, we are talking about the same person here, right? I somehow think anyone who can hold the grudge for ten years and be patient until a plan presents itself will be able to bide their time before springing an appropriate revenge. But that's the old Lessa from Dragonflight. New Lessa is apparently impulsive and ready to fly off the handle at any moment, because someone needed to retcon her into being a "hysterical" woman to make all the menfolk look serious and wise and give them opportunities to joke with each other about women, amirite?

Fuck that noise. I hope New Lessa is revealed to be an act designed to give her enough space to do and plan and manipulate people into what she wants.

The meeting proceeds with the news that a Weyrwoman, Fanna, is dying, and that her death will upset everyone, because a gold dragon will suicide right after, and the realization that the fire lizards are no longer agitated about flaming dragons or anything else. Which trips Menolly's suspicions that whatever had been agitating them has passed...and that Jaxom and Ruth have had a hand in it. Jaxom is able to deflect Menolly's suspicions by claiming he was trying to fight Thread (which he's got the scars for) instead of having to admit to time-running and the rescue mission for the queen egg, much as he wants to tell Menolly the truth. 

Since this is a meeting about big things, Robinton and N'ton lay on Lytol and Jaxom the secret of the grubs and the inevitable end of dragonriders, and the plans to let the North send their excess sons to the Southern Continent to relieve the fighting pressure over limited land. And then Robinton points out that the Harpers now know for certain the origins of people on Pern is the Southern Continent (it was suspected before), and that the Harpers and others have been quietly exploring the Southern Continent without informing Southern Weyr about it, discovering new materials and artifacts from the past that would have the Smiths in research for years.

With those bombshells dropped, Chapter Seven ends.


	9. Double-Secret Probation

Last time, Jaxom successfully avoided telling anyone about his egg rescue, letting everyone fill in their own blanks, to the benefit of finally being able to get proper training on flying a fighting dragon. Robinton also made mention that the South is being thoroughly explored by the Harpers without the permission of the Weyr there (although the Holders, like Toric, are presumably on board with it).

**The White Dragon, Chapter VIII: Content Notes: Misogyny, toxic masculinity**

(15.6.3-15.6.17 - two sevendays)

Jaxom awakens the next day realizing that Robinton manipulated everyone into getting Jaxom into training, so that Lytol could stay on as Regent for longer. The practical matters of caring for Ruth and his own injuries, as well as the need to actually go to training, stop Jaxom from delving deeper into his realization. A couple of the Weyrlings in Jaxom's new cohort are closer to his age instead of being fresh new children from a Hatching, much to his relief. To his, K'nebel (the Weyrlingmaster), and Ruth's consternation, however, the fixing of the temporal discrepancy means the fire-lizards are back to their crowding behavior around Ruth. After Ruth is able to get them to shoo and stay away, the morning lesson proceeds without incident. Jaxom is also secretly pleased that Weyrling training means he doesn't have to deal with Menolly's tendency to ask exactly the right questions to unravel any hiding of the truth.

Jaxom is certainly not above taking advantage of other people's assumptions, though.

> He was heartily amused when he realized that Lytol was leaving him several uncommitted hours in the afternoons. Obligingly he and Ruth took off for the Plateau Hold to see how the new wheat was prospering - of course.  
>  Corana was about the Hold these days since her brother's wife was near her time. When she showed a pretty concern for his healing score, he did not abuse her notion that he'd acquired it in a legitimate Fall, protecting the Hold from Thread. She rewarded him for that protection in a fashion that embarrassed him even as it relieved him. He'd as soon save his favors for honest endeavor.

But at least he feels guilty about it, right?

Except he doesn't, not really.

> He had finally achieved proper training for Ruth and, if he hadn't taken Hold, at least he was enjoying more of the prerogatives of a Lord Holder. He grinned, savoring Corana's sweetness. Judging by her sister's warm welcome, he assumed Plateau Hold would not object to a half-blooded addition. Success in that area would do him no harm in the eyes of the Lord Holders. He considered bringing Corana to the Hold, but decided against it. That would be unfair to the other fosterlings and cause trouble for Brand and Lytol. It wasn't as if he didn't have Ruth and couldn't come and go at his leisure and speedily. Furthermore, if he brought Corana to his quarters, she'd demand more of his attention at Ruth's expense than he was willing to give.

How nice it is to grow up with privilege in a social group that reinforces that privilege. Jaxom is starting to feel like he's finally getting what is owed him - respect, power, women. So much so that he's assuming one of his vassals wouldn't object to having and raising a bastard. And that fathering one would raise his esteem in the eyes of his peers. And that he can just leave the mother of that child at her Hold, because bringing her into his life at Ruatha would mean not having enough time to spend with his bro, Ruth. (Admittedly, the draconic pair-bond might be influencing this last decision more strongly that the culture around him is, but it still fits the mindset.)

Jaxom has achieved the status of the star athlete in a small town and/or the collegiate campus - he can do no wrong and will be backed up by others in his group against anyone who brings charges or accusations of misconduct. Welcome to the privileged position in rape culture, Jaxom. I'd like to hope that it won't destroy your signature empathy abilities, but from the way this is going, I'm not holding out particularly high hopes for you. Perhaps the best case scenario is that this is a temporary thing, and with age will come wisdom.

His Big Man On Campus bubble is slightly popped when he goes to Plateau for a booty call and finds himself in the middle of a birthing. Being around labor and the potential result of his half-blooded plan is too embarrassing for Jaxom. To his credit, he does ask whether he should fetch the Hold Healer to help with the birthing. When told no, however, he runs away - fast. And laments that there are things in life that are more important than him right now.

The next major event for Jaxom is that there's a Hatching, and Jaxom will be expected to put in an appearance for Ruatha. Lytol advises Jaxom to stay away from the Benden Weyrleaders so as not to provoke questions about why he's Threadscored, and sends him to collect Menolly, who has some of the salve Oldive made for her knife scar to help conceal Jaxom's scars - scentless, of course. Menolly mentions Beauty is about to clutch, and Jaxom lets slip that he might want one for Corana, because she's been good to him and asked (which she did, earlier in the chapter). Menolly gives him a shoulder-whomp after a gulp of surprise, which he yelps in pain over because he's scored there. There's no further conversation, though, as they need to find seats for the Hatching.

Since Menolly is supposed to be the tomboy of tomboys, being the Girl Harper and having marinated for years in the profoundly sexist environment of the Harper Hall, I'm inclined to believe this shoulder-pound is supposed to be read as a compliment to Jaxom for his studliness. It could also be read as an objection, but since the only time we've seen Menolly thinking about sex, it's generally in relation to the fire lizard fair or her admitted crush on Robinton, I'm not sure we have her official opinion on the idea of Holders having sex with others, with the potential of pregnancy. That said, the author has a bad habit of using women characters to make commentary on sexual habits, and to this point, they haven't said shit about men behaving badly, only women's responsibilities to not sleep with the wrong men, so we have yet another situation where the woman character is used to reinforce the double-standard.

Sitting by Robinton, Jaxom is exposed to one of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism as he realizes that Robinton is getting older and showing signs of age, and has to contemplate a world without the Masterharper. Not for long, however, as the first egg hatches and Ramoth moves protectively toward it, not allowing the candidate to Impress, needing reassurance that the people here will take care of their dragons and not try to steal her eggs before she relents. The Hatching proceeds, with a little wistful reminiscence from Jaxom and Ruth and jealousy from Menolly.

After the Hatching, Jaxom, Robinton, and Fandarel head to a meeting of the Lords Holder, the Weyrleaders, and the Craftmasters. Masterminer Nicat tries for small talk with Jaxom, but starts by insulting him over what Nicat had thought Ruth's chances of survival were, leaving an accusation dangling that Jaxom and Ruth had stolen firestone sacks from him, and then asking if he has any fire lizards to spare - not for prestige, for once, but because they are incredibly useful to the Miners, killing tunnel snakes and alerting the miners to gas pockets they can't smell. (And unlike canaries of our world, they apparently can handle the gases without dying or suffering serous injury as the alert.) Jaxom now has three requests to think about, but he's pretty certain his schedule won't allow for a flight to go look without time travel.

The first order of business for the meeting is D'ram, incredibly aged by dealing with the illness that has Fanna (his Weyrwoman), resigning his spot as Weyrleader of Ista. He's brought his favored choice to succeed him, but...

> "It was the custom in the Oldtime, when a Weyr was leaderless, to throw open the first queen's flight in that Weyr to all young bronzes. In this fashion a new leader was fairly chosen. I would invoke that custom now." He said it almost belligerently and yet his manner toward Lessa was entreating.

There's a murmur among the crowd, and the Benden Weyrleader declares that he's only going to send bronzes who haven't had a chance to fly a queen yet, so as not to stack the odds against D'ram's chosen successor. There are some questions from the Lords Holder about whether the queen to be flown is of Benden stock (no) and whether the successor is time-skipped or not (yes), which appears to gather support of the remaining time-skipped leadership. The request gives a lot of deference to Benden, but I'm not sure what the unspoken alternative is here - that Benden will just fly a bigger, stronger bronze down to take control with one of their loyalists and make Ista a satellite state, maybe? Considering how much everyone defers to Benden as it is, that would probably come across as pretty heavy-handed, and likely as a slap against the time-skipped.

I'm going to take a time out here and WTF at the use of "Oldtime" by D'ram in this exchange, because, as best I can tell, "Oldtimer" hasn't stopped being a pejorative. Now, while D'ram might use it with other time-skipped people the same way black people use "[N-Word privileges required]" with each other, I don't think he would do so in mixed company, and especially not with a group of people that would take its usage as a sign of their superiority to him. The more natural choice would have been "past" or "In my time" so as to avoid giving legitimacy to the insult. Giving each character uniqueness, and being able to keep them straight, is a major part of making your writing work well. It seems like the author forgot who D'ram is for a moment.

Having stated his intention, D'ram and his successor leave, with a short burst of debate afterward about whether such a custom should be allowed. The Benden Weyrleader favors it, which means it will happen. After that, one of the Lords Holder asks for more information about the egg theft, and is stonewalled, to his increasing annoyance. Finally, N'ton steps in and explains more directly:

> "Unlike Lord Holders," N'ton said, coming forward, "dragonriders are not free to indulge their passions or honors at the expense of their primary duty, which is to protect all of Pern from Thread. **That** is the important occupation of dragonriders, Lord Begamon."

Begamon is dissuaded from further inquiry by Lord Groghe of Fort, who mentions that is Weyr business and they shouldn't interfere, and that the wine will be excellent.

I'm not sure I believe N'ton's claim, though, considering that the Benden Weyrleader has been put into a knife duel twice, once _while Thread was falling_ , and raped his Weyrwoman. His wing-second has been stabbed over a knife, one queen rider in a Weyr is still in an unknown location, her mind shattered, because she chose her sexual partners, another rider is devoted to her rapist (said wing-second), after suffering a similar mental shattering, and then there's Lessa, who was quite happy to go burn down dragonriders if it meant getting her egg back. Which was probably the latest of her likely many plots to move, shuffle, and otherwise try to bring others under her wing or send them away so that her jealousy was satisfied.

The rest of the chapter is Menolly asking if Robinton said anything to the Benden Weyrleaders, a muted Hatching feast, an after action report to Lytol, which Lytol accepts with a grunt and passes to Jaxom two more requests for fire-lizards, Jaxom passing on the request and N'ton informing Jaxom he can't go with them on a Thread flight, even though N'ton is impressed with Ruth's abilities in the air, and the news that Fanna's death is imminent while Jaxom and Ruth are having a mountain spring bath.

Ruth, of his own initiative, spins them back in time a bit to before Fanna's death, claiming that Lytol will need Jaxom at the time the news comes through, which gives Jaxom enough time to ask where Lytol is and get some extra wine to bring with him. Jaxom arrives just as the news does, with a fire lizard starting the keening that indicates the death of Fanna's queen dragon.

> Jaxom splashed wine into a cup and held it to Lytol.  
>  "It doesn't stop the pain, I know," he said in a rough tone, "but you can get drunk enough not to hear or remember."

And here would be a really great place to know what the customs really are when it comes to dragonriders and death. And to know how Lytol actually is, in terms of mental state, and whether he's gotten through the stages of grief, and whether his preferred way of coping really is trying to drown it out with drink, and whether he actually wants to drink himself silly, or whether he feels able to handle the situation. There's so much unexplored at this point that it would be worthwhile spending time on the long night - Lytol can keep Jaxom there, figuring he's old enough now to understand, and tell stories of his own dragon, Lioth, and what it feels like to be separated, and all of those things that come into a teenager's purview when the adults think they're old enough to participate in mourning. This should be a defining moment for Jaxom, another step to adulthood.

Instead, the chapter ends on that line and will pick up again a month later, so yet again we are robbed of a worldbuilding opportunity after the traumatic death of a queen dragon and expected to just move on. This seems a very conscious decision on the part of the author - death, where needed to advance the plot, only appears long enough to wave at the possible consequences, and then everyone has moved on, accompanied by a time skip.

_[Much, much later, in the Todd books, a dragonrider funerary ritual will finally be unveiled, and a customary greeting from one dragonrider to another when their dragon has died, but this runs into the problem that the Todd books are so far away from the Anne books that there's not really an assumption or an idea that whatever customs were present in the past survived all the way through to the present. However, since Anne didn't seem all that interested in fleshing out the world of Pern except when it was relevant to the plot, and even then, maybe not if she could get away with a timeskip of some sort or just jumping right over the interesting part, we have precious little about the way that Pern and its Weyrs actually operate. This is great if you want to write fanfic about what's happened or do some swift fix-it work to try and patch the holes that have appeared, but it also speaks to a certain amount of not thinking things through when it became apparent that the series was going to go quite long and of not caring about already-established continuity and characterization if it could be discarded so as not to have to create another character somewhere._

_Admittedly, these concerns aren't as relevant when you're coming at Pern for the first time, and especially not if you're part of the target audience for Pern, but Pern is really not good on a reread, or if at some point while following the narrative, you start having questions or thoughts about how any of this actually works and what the prevalent attitudes about just about everything is. If the plot can keep enough plates spinning for you to pay attention to, then you wouldn't notice that somewhere along the way, you've also become part of the balancing act instead of being part of the audience.]_


	10. Once More, With Feeling

Where we last left Jaxom, he was close to forcing drink on Lytol after the queen dragon at Ista Weyr committed suicide shortly after her rider, Fanna, died. 

**The White Dragon: Chapter IX: Content Notes: suicidal ideation**

(15.7.3 - several sevendays after the death of Fanna)

Where we pick up, however, is with Robinton nearly being bowled over in his office by Menolly's excitement that the Benden Weyrleader has come to the Harper Hall. Robinton, returned to his role of shrewd and wise Harper, is not convinced yet that this visit is all good.

> Robinton sighed again, sadly, as he looked at the empty doorway. She [Menolly] had grieved over the estrangement of the Harper Hall and Benden Weyr. So, in his own way, had he. He brought his thoughts sharply away from that. There'd been no hint of distress in Mnementh's acknowledgement of the watchdragon's challenge. What had brought F'lar to [the Hall]? (Benden in my copy, which is clearly not correct.) And, more important, did the Weyrleader come with Lessa's knowledge? Or consent?

Wait, so _now_ we care about Lessa, after having spent several books ignoring or demeaning her when she tries to get involved? If she had known that all it would take to be taken seriously is to threaten the destruction of the entire draconic way of life and not blink or back down when called on it, she probably would have used a much more convenient excuse, like the exile, or Kylara, to get herself some respect.

The Benden Weyrleader is not here for pleasure, however - he's here to consult Robinton's brilliant mind to figure out where and when D'ram and his dragon, Tiroth, have gone to, as they aren't in the present time, and the general opinion is that neither dragon nor rider could make the hops all the way back to D'ram's original time point. Which still leaves a large swath of possible space-time to have to cover to try and find him. Robinton is being asked to come up with some likely coordinate possibilities.

So it is in this context we talk, not about the one who is dead, but the one who could be, and by doing so, we start to see a little about what passes for opinions about death.

> "Oldive said he was completely in possession of his reason, F'lar, if that's your worry."  
>  F'lar made a grimace and impatiently stroked back a forelock which invariably feel into his eyes when he was agitated. "Frankly, Robinton, it's Lessa. Ramoth can't find Tiroth. Lessa's certain he's gone far enough back in time to suicide without causing us distress. It's in D'ram's nature to do so."  
>  "It is also his option." Robinton said gently.  
>  "I know, I know. And no one would fault him but Lessa is very worried. D'ram may have stepped down, Robinton, but his knowledge, his opinions are valuable and valued. Right now more than ever. Bluntly, we need him...need him available to us."  
>  Robinton thought briefly about the possibility that D'ram had realized this and removed himself and Tiroth from easy access. But D'ram would serve Pern, and dragonfolk at any time.  
>  "He perhaps needs time to recover from his grief, F'lar."  
>  "He was worn out with tending Fanna. You know that. He could also be sick and who would be the to help? We're both worried."

Ah, and now some more truth comes out. It's not just Lessa, even though Lessa may have a different opinion on why D'ram needs to be found. Also, there really does seem to be an expectation that dragons and riders commit some form of suicide when they want to or are about to die, assuming they have the strength to do so.

Robinton asks about fire lizards, not in the traditional sense of pointing them at a destination and asking them to go, but in querying their collective memory for the image of a lone bronze dragon. The Benden Weyrleader is not convinced, but is willing to go along with it.

> "If I could relieve Lessa's fears, I'd even forget my antipathy to those nuisances."  
>  "I trust you'll remember that statement." Robinton grinned to soften the remark.

Curioser and curioser. The Benden Weyrleader I'm used to seeing wouldn't have cared at all about Lessa's distress, only his own interest and the consequences to his ego of having a Weyrleader able to sneak off without his knowledge. I guess we're supposed to accept this as a consequence of Lessa becoming the emotional one, and to prove that he really does love her, not just that he used her to come to power. Of course, lacking tonal clues, this exchange could also be read in the style of "I wish that woman would just shut up, but she keeps going on and on and nag, nag, nag. I came here to do this because I need peace and obedience in my weyr, not because I care." Which would be a lot more in line with previous characterization.

Robinton and the Benden Weyrleader take a small hyperspace hop to see Ruth, since fire-lizards tell Ruth everything, but not before we're informed that the telegraph had made it all the way to Crom Mines. And, somehow, in the midst of that and other talk about everyone in the north wanting to go south to get resources and land, Robinton thinks he knows the where of D'ram's disappearance, but isn't sure about the when. Upon arrival, Robinton checks to see if there are any signs of scarring on Jaxom (no) before explaining to everyone what he's looking for - the when in relation to the Noodle Incident referred to in Chapter Two, when Robinton and Menolly were blown off-course and Menolly kept Robinton alive. Robinton asks Lytol if Jaxom will assist, and Lytol defers, saying it's Jaxom's decision alone. Jaxom is quite ready to go for it, and so maps are sent for to plan out where the location is to start spinning backward in time to find D'ram.

Also, the Benden Weyrleader wants to know how much Jaxom and Ruth have been time-shifting themselves.

> "How much timing it have you done, Jaxom?" F'lar asked suddenly.  
>  A flush suffused Jaxom's face. With a start, Robinton saw the thin line of scar white against the reddened cheek. Luckily, that side of Jaxom's face was turned away from the Weyrleader.  
>  "Well, sir..."  
>  "Come, lad. I don't know any young dragonrider who hasn't used the trick to be on time. What I want to establish is how accurate Ruth's time sense is. Some dragons don't have any at all."  
>  "Ruth always knows **when** he is." Jaxom replied with quick pride. "I'd say he has the best time memory on Pern."  
>  F'lar considered that for a long moment. "Have you ever tried any long jumps?"  
>  Jaxom nodded slowly, his eyes flicking to Lytol whose face remained impassive.  
>  "No wavering of the leap? No unduly long stay **between**?"  
>  "No, sir. It's easy to be accurate anyhow if you jump at night."

N'ton had mentioned earlier that time-shifting yourself shows in the eyes. While it's been a few weeks since Jaxom promised (but Ruth didn't), he shouldn't be so red in the face about it. Unless he's thinking about the egg rescue? If so, bravo on the right reaction, but a signpost would be nice. If not the egg, then maybe Ruth has been adjusting Jaxom's arrival points without telling him? Since we have no information about what this sign is in the eyes, whether it's reversible by not time-shifting, and how long it takes for the signs to go away if they are reversible, I can't gather any useful information about why Jaxom is embarrassed except by guessing. This is a missed opportunity for everyone to have descriptive thoughts or speculation. And for the author to show us this new Weyrleader with empathy and understanding.

Resuming where we left off, with Jaxom explaining nighttime jumps are far easier to hit...

> "I'm not sure I follow that reasoning."  
>  "Those star equations Wansor worked out. [...] If you work out the position of the dominant stars in the skies, you can position yourself most accurately."  
>  "If you jump at night," the Masterharper added, never having thought to put that use to Wansor's equations.  
>  "Never occurred to me to do that," F'lar said.

_[Would you like a Cocowhat? Because there's one here.]_

I can believe the Benden Weyrleader not thinking about such things, because he's never really come across as the kind of person who sits and thinks about the applications of the sciences, but Robinton? That seems to be stretching it. Maybe he's been too busy being caught up in the politics of everything to realize the full implications of the equations. Although...our perspective on what Wansor had to say was cut off because Jaxom stopped paying attention after the parts involving the ability to improve Threadfall predictions. Maybe Wansor mentioned it, or someone else did, and Jaxom is reinventing the wheel here. But that still means both the Benden Weyrleader (who had had two people very close to him do new and interesting, if foolhardy, things regarding their hyperspace time-traveling dragons, as well as a serious incident involving time-travel shenanigans) and the Masterharper (the spymaster-general) to have missed the implications of the knowledge of being able to keep accurate visual time.

This follows what seems to be a general trend with regard to scientific knowledge in these books - a discovery, the application it has to Thread, and then nothing more. Thread is an existential threat, albeit a well-managed one, but it seems to have an outsized influence on the development of Pernese society.

Jaxom hangs an immediate lampshade on the lack of knowledge of star positions by remembering that Lessa used the stars in the tapestry to do the jump backward to pull the time-skipped Weyrs forward. The return of the maps by fire lizards (who are all still skittish about getting flamed by dragons or hurt by dragonriders) starts the planning in earnest. Ruth will receive the right imagery from fire lizard memory (of Southern fire lizards) and do hops, much to the Benden Weyrleader's consternation (naming it a "conspiracy to get fire lizards back in good odor"). until he finds D'ram, at which point Jaxom is to note the coordinates and return, all in great discretion, of course, which sets Jaxom's lack of poker face off again. Robinton is sure something's up, but he doesn't know yet, and he's not going to pry.

Back at the Harper Hall, Robinton hopes Menolly won't object to being sent along with Jaxom to provide the correct picture for Ruth to start from. When he informs her and Jaxom, both are relieved,, but also apparently sharing a private joke of some sort. He wonders whether it's a love bond, and mulls the prospect of Menolly as Lady Holder, before ultimately dismissing it as just friendship.

And thus, the chapter ends with Robinton turning to the paperwork he's been putting off.

_[The comments on this one foreground the presence of Traders and caravans of goods, which are noted to exist, but not really given a lot of detail until the Todd books again, where we find out that they are perfectly capable of star navigation, since they use it to cross deserts at night and otherwise stay on their schedules. And then teach the dragonriders how to do that kind of star navigation and visualization so that they can also start hitting temporal marks with reasonable accuracy. As we get to the Todd books, you'll see a lot more from me railing about how setting them in the past like this undoes a lot of the things that the previously-published books are doing, because they make the "unprecedented" very precedented, and things instead turn to the massive amounts of WTF that has to happen for things that have been so useful to dragonriders and others to be so totally forgotten such that they need to be completely rediscovered in later eras. I realize that we're talking about a long timeframe, and that the historians of Terra haven't been able to perfectly preserve every bit of knowledge that their predecessors have created, but we do pretty good with the knowledge of people from similar timeframes, and have been steadily developing better methods of preservation and organization of that knowledge over time. There's going to be a lot of yelling about Records and archival procedures when those start coming more into prominence, so look forward to that!]_


	11. Recovering That Which Was Thought Lost

Last chapter, the Benden Weyrleader asked the Masterharper to help him find the Ista Weyrleader, because the Weyrwoman is distressed that she can't find him. The Masterharper asked the Lord Holder of Ruatha to ask his dragon to ask the fire-lizards to remember where and when they saw the Ista Weyrleader's dragon. Which crafted a mission for the Girl Harper, the Lord Holder of Ruatha, and selected fire lizards to hop back in time to find the Ista Weyrleader and discreetly report back. 

The Ista Weyrleader, if alive, presumably, does not want to be found by anyone. His autonomy and desire to grieve is deemed subordinate to everyone else's need for him. Which is not anywhere near kosher - what could D'ram possibly be needed for that he cannot be allowed to grieve?

**The White Dragon, Chapter X: Content Notes: Male Gaze**

(15.7.4 - the next day)

The first part of the chapter is getting everyone to the correct location - Ruth mentions that Menolly sends vivid pictures (as befits a Harper that has to memorize and report on clandestine affairs) and Jaxom wonders whether the fire lizards will be enough to get Ruth there, which puts all the time spent memorizing star positions to waste for Jaxom. Menolly and Jaxom settle in to wait for fire lizards, while Ruth takes a bath. There's food plucked off the trees in the South, and Menolly nonchalantly mentions the time where she nearly lost two of her bronzes to a wild queen while she was here last when Jaxom asks whether or not there will be fire lizards.

The wait and heat is eventually too much for Jaxom to suffer through, and so he strips and dashes for the water, with Menolly following suit soon after. Which gives Jaxom a chance to ogle Menolly, helping us actually finally start building a picture of what she looks like.

> Menolly's body was trimmer than Corana's, Jaxom noticed as they waded out, happily exhausted from their swim with Ruth. She was longer in the leg and not nearly as rounded in the hip. A bit too flat in the breast, but she moved with a grace that fascinated Jaxom more than courtesy allowed. When he looked back, she had put on pants and overtunic, so that her slim bare arms were exposed to the sun as she dried her hair. He preferred long hair in a girl, though with all the dragonriding Menolly did, he could see why she'd keep it short enough to wear under a helmet.

And... Menolly is apparently long and thin, despite having apparently kept up her sailing technique. And, most likely, the singing and instrument playing. And the traveling, which probably isn't by beast in Southern or the more remote parts of the North. Yet she has "slim" arms. I can believe being flat-chested, long-legged, and slim in the hips from her life in a Sea Hold and the continual muscle-building and toning exercise that being a Harper and sailor is. For comparison, here's the [International Sailing Federation women's match sailing champions from 2015](http://www.sailing.org/events/womensmatchworlds/40372.php), which is sailing with a lot of technological assistance, as you can tell from the gear still on them. They all might fit the profile for body type, but you can tell their arms are quite strong and not slim by looking at their picture. The work Menolly does should be putting muscle on everywhere, especially the arms, so I want to know what Jaxom is comparing to that Menolly's arms are slim.

Also, how convenient it is that Menolly is still apparently without shame about the display of her body. Despite Dunca's best efforts, that is. Menolly is also entirely comfortable being naked around Jaxom without being worried about anything happening to her, despite having plenty of stories about what Holder sons like to do and what dragonriders do when they're in the throes of mating - a state she and Sebell have already shared when their fire lizards went at it. Admittedly, Jaxom has made no such moves toward her in the past, but they've mostly been in the company of others. This would be an opportunity, if he were inclined. Menolly might well kick his ass, but he wouldn't know that.

Anyway, the plan to use Ruth as a fire lizard magnet works, and Ruth would get appropriate time coordinates for D'ram, except the fire lizards also remember quite a bit about men on the Southern continent, a time when there were many men, but no dragons, only fire-lizards. The fire lizards don't remember sadness, though, so it's unlikely there was a suicide, from which we get this interesting snippet:

> "And besides, a dragon wouldn't let his rider harm himself. D'ram **can't** suicide with Tiroth's alive. And Tiroth won't if D'ram is still alive."

O rly? Poorly-visualized coordinates caused a dragon and rider to be entombed. Doing the giant time hop nearly killed Lessa, and now there are equations that could be used to try a jump that would be beyond the constitution of even the hardiest rider. Two fighting queens killed each other without giving a damn about their riders. Accidents have killed dragons. Surely it would be possible to drink, drown, or poison oneself - or even take a one-way trip to the Red Star. Or just fly into a Threadfall and die, since it seems the prohibition against self-harm has a giant exception carved out for fighting Thread.

Speaking of, Jaxom deduces that the dragonrider that has spent his life fighting Thread would want to settle down sometime where he wouldn't have to deal with it, and takes off for a twenty-five year hop (the 15 of Present Pass plus a safe margin) to find D'ram and Tiroth - over Menolly's caution. Jaxom is correct in his deduction, and returns immediately to the present time, to be confronted with a pissed-off Menolly, hands on her hips, glaring knives at him, and this particular gem:

> Menolly was very pretty, Jaxom thought, with her eyes flashing like that, but she was daunting, too.

_That_ sounds familiar - like Lessa to the Benden Weyrleader, Brekke to her rapist familiar. "Look how pretty she is when she's mad, which I can say because she can't actually hurt me." At least in Jaxom's case, he's not discounting taking a wound or three from fire lizards or from Menolly. She's mad at him because he's been gone for hours, her time, and she was worried that he had miscalculated - and she had no way of connecting to him through fire lizards, because the time gap was too large (which is why Ramoth can't find Tiroth - someone should do a study to see how far in space and time the draconic connection goes).

_[This actually becomes relevant in later books. Moreta will end up being unavailable when she travels past the point of her own death, and it will take an entire Weyr's worth of dragon energy for Lorana to sling a message back several hundred Turns in time. Although her own dragonet and fire lizard will be able to transport themselves over that temporal gap all by themselves. There are clearly implications and rules about how far away in time a dragon can be before they lose contact with the dragons of their own time, but like so many other things, until a plot decides that it's suddenly very important to work it out, it remains fairly nebulous.]_

The return to Benden brings a fair of fire lizards with them from the South, which alarms the watchdragon, and therefore puts everyone on high alert. Jaxom manages to get everyone set down and sends Ruth off to get food (after getting permission) before completely passing out from the strain of the time jumps. Smelling salts (or the Pernese equivalent) revive him, and he is required to drink soup before being allowed to talk. And is told he's bedding down at Benden as well. And that Lessa is clearly annoyed at how this has turned out:

> She glared at her weyrmate. "Yes, I've been worried over D'ram but not to the point where I would risk a fingertip of Ruth's hide to find him if he's trying that hard to be lost. Nor am I very pleased to find fire-lizards involved." She was tapping one foot now and her glare was divided equally between Menolly and Jaxom.

Which gives the earlier conversation between Robinton and the Benden Weyrleader a little bit of the Unreliable Narrator. Or, if they are both right, it means that Lessa's not-concern was still frequent enough and plaintive enough that the Benden Weyrleader sought help. I don't believe Lessa has been known to be passive-aggressive in that way. Using her mental powers to push someone in the direction she wants them to go, sure, or acting in a manner to get a desired result, yes, but not trying to get someone you do anything but being not-concerned a lot a bit it. Maybe Lessa mentioned it, and then pushed hard on the Weyrleader's resentment toward Lessa trying to get him to do something so that he went off to do it because he couldn't stand the nagging. That would be more consistent with the Lessa that was already established.

Messages dispatched and assurances given that Lessa will not chew Jaxom out while he's still weak from time travel, Lessa gets a good look at Jaxom and notices his Threadscore. Which means he is going to get chewed out, just not about D'ram. Lessa wants to know why she wasn't informed about his injury and subsequent training. Not their jurisdiction, says the Weyrleader, and besides, a little battle scarring makes Jaxom less likely to try doing it on his own again (without training). Lessa is unhappy, but smooths out somewhat as Jaxom explains why he thought the twenty-five year hop was the right idea (because Lessa and company came forward in those intervals).

Menolly's return changes the topic, as does the news that Ruth is eating far more than usual, and Manora has sent food up with her - enough to restore Jaxom's energy and comfortably feed everyone else. Discussing the images that the Southern fire-lizards sent has the Benden Weyrleader muse that there could be other people on the Continent, prompting a Suspiciously Specific Denial from Lessa.

> "F'lar!" Lessa's voice was sharp and warning. "You are not exploring the Southern Continent. And, might I suggest that if there were men there, somewhere, they would certainly have ventured far enough north to be seen at some stage or another by F'nor when he was south, or by Toric's groups. There would have been signs of them other than the unreliable recollections of some fire-lizards."  
>  "You're quite likely right, Lessa," F'lar said, looking so disappointed that Jaxom realized for the first time that being Benden's Weyrleader and First Dragonrider of Pern might not be as enviable a position as he'd previously assumed.

Great Maker, another title, one that acknowledges that he's the bestest. The narrative really does give him everything he wants.

I'm almost certain at this point that we're now supposed to see the Benden Weyrleader as the old high school quarterback who now works a dead-end job, married to the girl he knocked up and who henpecks and emasculates him constantly, who is looking for any excuse to sneak off and relive the glory days (or at least try to rekindle that spirit he had when he was king of the world). We're supposed to feel sorry for him.

I don't. Partially because casting him as a henpecked husband means casting Lessa as the shrew in the operation, and to do so would be injurious to her characterization. And we have had more than enough of the narrative insisting that active, opinionated women are problems to be fixed. I also don't feel bad for him because he's still a big jerk, even if he's a mellower jerk these days. What he wanted for Jaxom, and what Lessa wanted for Jaxom, both gave very little thought to what Jaxom might want or be curious about, being both Holder and dragonrider. And, perhaps, I still haven't forgiven him for what he's done to Lessa in previous books.

As it turns out, the Suspiciously Specific Denial is because the Weyrs have plans for the Southern Continent - after the grubs make the dragonriders obsolete, they plan to retire to the South and live a luxurious life feasting on the land there, preempting the Holders and Toric. Basically, the Benden Weyrleader believes the dragonriders should be independent of Hold tribute, so they need enough land to be self sufficient. On that revelation, the chapter ends.

I do have one question, though, and I think I've asked this before when talking about the Weyr-Hold issues before - if dragonriders really did want to be self-sufficient, **_why haven't they done it already?_** They hold the military power, they can go basically anywhere on the planet to harvest or breed their own stocks of meat and plants and supplies, and if things get too far gone, they can time-travel to harvest ahead of Threadfall if they lost a crop that way, or to prevent the natural condition that killed a crop otherwise. If the Weyrs really wanted it, they could have long since established themselves as independent. What they have clearly wanted, instead, is for everyone else to be dependent on them for protection and to give then tribute.

What has changed? It can't be that the Holders somehow have gathered extra military power to be a threat to dragons. They have flamethrowers to fight Thread with, but I don't think that will really work against an enemy that can disappear and reappear at will. They could still try economic warfare with the Crafthalls, but that still doesn't prevent the dragonriders from taking what they want or sieging everyone until they die or surrender.

No, there must be an advantage to be gained by controlling the South, and the Benden Weyrleaders are blowing smoke up Jaxom's ass by talking about "retirement" after the grubs are properly seeded in the North. Since we're following Jaxom, though, we may never know.

_[This, too, becomes important to later Pern books, where we get to examine in more detail the kinds of plans and land that is being thought about with regard to draconic retirement, but first, before we get to that point, we have to do a lot more of developing Toric into a persistent antagonist, rather than just being the person who's been charged with administering the Southern Hold and getting bitched at by (and doing a fair amount of bitching about) the Southern Weyr.]_


	12. What's-A-Come-And-A-Go

Last chapter, Jaxom found D'ram, we got to see what the male gaze saw in Menolly, and the Benden Weyrleaders revealed a plan to capture most of the Southern Continent, ostensibly so they could retire after the grubs make Pern safe from thread.

**The White Dragon, Chapter XI: Content Notes: Misogyny, sexism**

(15.7.5, the next day)

Rather than be allowed to sleep in too late for recovering from their time-hop, Jaxom and Ruth are awoken by Menolly and Mirrim, because the Benden Weyrleader wants to go somewhere. Food and drink are available, but it comes with some insults between Jaxom and Mirrim, after Mirrim expresses her distaste for a Weyrleader that lets his charge get Threadscored.

> "And I just don't see what good it's going to do you. You can't expect to fight Ruth."  
>  Jaxom choked. "I am too going to fight Ruth, Mirrim."  
>  "He already has," Mirrim remarked, indicating the Threadscore. "Now shut your mouth and let the man eat."  
>  **"Man?"** Mirrim's voice took a derisive swoop and she gave Jaxom a scathing glare.  
>  Menolly made an exasperated sound. "If Path doesn't fly soon, Mirrim, you're not going to be on terms with anyone!"  
>  Surprised, Jaxom looked at Mirrim, who was flushing deeply red.  
>  "Oh ho, Path's ready to be flown! That'll sort out some of your high-headed notions." He couldn't resist crowing at her dismay. "Has Path shown a preference? Ha! Look at her blush! Never thought I'd see the day you'd lose the use of your tongue. And you'll be losing something more soon. I hope it's the wildest flight they've had at Benden since Mnementh first flew Ramoth!"  
>  Mirrim exploded, her eyes narrowed with her anger, hands clenched into fists at her side. "At least my Path will be flown! That's more than you'll ever do, with that white runt of yours!"

_[Definitely a Cocowhat here.]_

Oh, hit him already, Mirrim. Beat him into the ground until he apologizes. He's more than earned it. Seriously, Jaxom, all that toxic masculinity is doing a fucking _number_ on your character. Where's the sweet empathetic boy that we had back in the earlier books? 

That's on top of the extra Wrong that it's Mirrim getting teased - Mirrim, remember, is Brekke's fosterling. Brekke was not exactly forthright about her own sexual identity back in Dragonquest. So, with how fantastically Brekke's first sexual experience (rape) and mating flight (death of Wirenth) went, it would make sense that Brekke is not going to be forthcoming with the details about what happens when dragons get in heat. The embarrassment suggests that nobody else had taken on that role, either. Menolly has had an analagous experience, and is still Pern's most comfortable woman in her sexuality, so it's surprising to me that she hasn't taken Mirrim aside at some point and given her The Talk.

In all cases, Jaxom, Mirrim's virginity is not something to be joked about or used as an insult line. Doing that makes you an asshole.

Anyway, Menolly rebukes Mirrim for that last line, not having said anything to Jaxom about his role in the conversation, and then...

> "Do you know anything about..." he jerked his head at Ruth, "that I don't know?"  
>  "About Path?" Menolly deliberately misconstrued his direction. "Well, if you've never seen a rider reaction to a proddy dragon, Mirrim's given you a classic example."

...Menolly shows she's an asshole, too, which is also strongly against the characterization she had in the Harper Hall. What is it about this society that drums out compassion and empathy by the time children reach adulthood? Even if it is draconic pre-mating syndrome, I would think that garners sympathy or empathy, especially from someone who's been getting it quite strongly from the _ten fire lizards she's Impressed_. Of all the characters most likely to be empathetic, I'd put Menolly at the top of the list. What the hell is with this book and its complete character divergence?

So there's a little discussion about how Ruth hasn't been interested in dragons in a mating way, which Menolly suggests might be due to Ruth not necessarily maturing at the same speed as other dragons. Wouldn't it be better if the conception was that Ruth really is just ace? It would be a lot less stigmatizing and it would have less implications for Jaxom that he's a freak as well. The narrative assures us that Menolly isn't pitying or condescending to Jaxom, and Menolly says that Jaxom shouldn't feel ashamed about his own sex life (which, again, Jaxom is using a woman with the intention of possibly fathering a child, but not necessarily acknowledging it or providing support),so clearly all is well here. Menolly apologizes for Mirrim and enumerates all the parts of her that are embarrassing, exasperating, and trying (which is basically all Mirrim's characterization has ever been, by the way), and then returns to the subject of Corana and Jaxom's uniqueness as both Holder and dragonrider. The return of D'ram, collected by the Benden Weyrleaders, sidetracks the conversation, and Jaxom and Menolly are summoned by Robinton to the Harper Hall.

Sebell takes Menolly (who have coupled in Dragondrums, even though that book hasn't been written yet), who is thrilled that he's back from a mission somewhere (probably the south) and goes off to spend time with him while Robinton debriefs Jaxom about the trip to find and retrieve D'ram. He's very interested in the images of men from the fire lizards - it appears that Robinton has long suspected the South was the origin point of people on Pern. Of course, someone could just find the records, or go back in time to see things...if they really wanted.

Before heading back to Ruatha, and after discovering that Menolly and Sebell have an intimate relationship, Jaxom decides to head to Corana and have a roll in the metaphorical hay.

> She was as willing and eager as he was to satisfy desires thwarted on his previous visit to the Hold. As his hands touched her soft flesh and he felt her body press against his, he wondered briefly if she'd have been as willing a lover had he not been Ruatha's Lord. But he didn't care! He was her lover now! He gave himself to that pursuit with no further reservation. At the precise moment of his release, exquisite to the point of pain, he was aware of a gentle touch and knew, with a sense of relief that enhanced his own, that Ruth was joined to him then, as always.

And on that fantastically creepy line, the chapter ends. It's also another missed opportunity - after all, what kind of negotiations would have to happen between two people sharing a deep empathic and mental bond if one of them is definitely sexual and one of them is just as definitely ace? Ruth, admittedly, appears not to care about being part of Jaxom's sex life for the moment, but there's obviously more to it than just sex. We don't know if Jaxom fantasizes or masturbates or otherwise includes his sex life in things other than the time he spends with Corana - as a teenager, even as a Lord Holder and dragonrider, I'm guessing there's a lot of time spent in his fantasy life.

Not as much time is spent, apparently, in understanding that Corana may be doing this as a political maneuver, except as that brilliant flash right before his penis takes over. The most we've heard so far have been the Holders' sons, who are all about the making of children they don't intend to support. Nobody else seems to be willing to take Jaxom aside and explain to him about what happens when you have multiple sons running about that could all theoretically lay claim to your Hold in various parts. Like the infighting currently going on, or that could have happened had Meron not been forced into naming a successor. And also, what sort of child support or marriage expectations might come from getting a girl pregnant, since there still doesn't appear to be any form of contraceptive past the draconic abortion. Corana could be trying to improve her situation and see if she can't get a good marriage and heir out of the deal, even though now she's seen the miracle of childbirth. And has she met Lessa yet? Because Lessa is going to have an opinion on who inherits and rules Ruatha for as long as she lives, and it would be good to know whether Lessa will give her blessing or make sure that Corana meets with a situation that leaves her dead or vanished into the past.

The consequences of these things should really be discussed. I'd almost settle for even a conversation that talked all about the politics and none of the "you know how much of a dick move it is to get a girl pregnant and then dump her, right?"

Almost.

_[The question of Ruth is definitely interesting. So much has happened between the original posting and now that I'd feel a lot more confident giving it a better analysis of Ruth's apparent non-binary status. Possibly a pronoun change, since I'm not sure that Ruth ever refers to themselves with a gendered pronoun, and to talk a lot more about Ruth's apparent ace spectrum existence. But there's more information to be gathered from the next chapter, so we'll leave the Director's Cut discussion for then, instead.]_


	13. He's Normal. No, Really.

Last chapter, a large amount of misogyny resulted in Jaxom insulting Mirrim regularly about her dragon's likelihood of mating soon. And then Jaxom did some mating of his own.

**The White Dragon: Chapter XII: Content Notes: Dubious Consent Rape, Rape Apologia**

(15.7.6, the day after the last chapter)

Okay, so I was wrong about a lack of consequences discussion...ish. The chapter opens with Jaxom trying very hard not to think about Ruth's lack of ardor, with two separate green dragon risings to bring the matter back to the forefront of Jaxom's mind. On the second, the Weyrlingmaster takes a long look at Jaxom, which sends him into a giant shame spiral, enough to get Ruth agitated from his mindset. Jaxom says he's okay, but what's going on has his focus:

> With a challenging snarl, the green dragon was airborne, the blues and browns after her while she repeated her taunting challenge.  
>  [...]  
>  On the killing ground, their riders closed into a knot around the green's rider. All too quickly, challenger and pursuers dwindled to specks in the sky. Their riders half-ran, half-stumbled to the Lower Caverns and the chamber reserved there.  
>  Jaxom had never witnessed a mating flight of dragons. He swallowed, trying to moisten his dry throat. He felt heart and blood thudding and a tension he usually experienced only as he held Corana's slender body against him. He suddenly wondered which dragon had flown Mirrim's Path, which rider had-  
>  [...Jaxom's thought process is interrupted by the Weyrlingmaster giving him consolation on Ruth's disinterest...]  
>  Jaxom thought of the skyborne beasts. Unwillingly he thought of their riders in the inner room, linked to their dragons in an emotional struggle that was resolved in a strengthening and fusing of the links between dragons and riders. Jaxom thought of Mirrim. And of Corana.  
>  With a groan, he sprang on Ruth's neck, fleeting the emotional atmosphere of Fort Weyr, trying to flee from his sudden realization of what he had probably always known about riders but had only this very morning assimilated.  
>  He had intended to go to the lake to immerse himself in the cold waters and let that icy shock cure his body and chill the torment in his mind. But Ruth instead took him to the Plateau Hold.

Before we talk mating again, here's another confirmed case of a dragon altering the destination point of their rider based on an emotional state. Ruth has determined that Jaxom needs Corana more than he needs a cold bath. Which suggests that Ruth understands this sex thing perfectly well in terms of feelings and emotions, is just that he's not interested in dragons. He's normal.

_[Which is true, but we're not to the point in our own lives where people being ace is much more normalized than it was then. Ace people are entirely normal. What, then, makes this entire thing fascinating is that I'm pretty sure that when these were written, there wasn't a broad concept of asexuality in practice just about anywhere, and people who were uninterested in sex were probably seen as profoundly weird or strange. I think there's some glossing here about Ruth because Ruth is of a different color than any other dragon, and therefore, he's probably considered to be some sort of "sport". Even though it's not been directly applied to Ruth, I think there's an understanding that this is supposed to be the case. And "sports" are almost always genetically weird, and there's a running theme with many of them that they're either unable to have sex, reproduce, or that they're entirely uninterested in it, possibly because of the inability to reproduce. Which is nonsense, because plenty of people deliberately make sure they can't reproduce and they have a grand time with sex, but it was definitely a prevailing attitude of science fiction of the time, as I recall it, that people with different genes ended up having different tastes, as well, and many of them tended ace-spectrum.]_

Also, I'm having trouble figuring out what Jaxom is reacting to with such force. Is it the group sex aspect that could be going on, depending on whether the green is satisfied with one partner, or will mate and then mate again with a different dragon? (Or the possible orgy among the riders that may develop anyway from the sexual feelings their dragons are having.) Is it the thought of potentially violent sex being done to Mirrim while Path is mating, and Jaxom is feeling some form of regret or sorrow at how cruel and callous his remarks were to Mirrim about the upcoming flight? (If this were previous Jaxom, this would be the likely interpretation, but current Jerkass Jaxom makes this a less likely solution.) Perhaps Jaxom is feeling oogie at the possibility of having sex with a man while their dragons mate, as Mirrim is the only female green rider? As Holdbred, from what we understand, that might be seen as something unnatural and disturbing about the dragonriders - but then again, Jaxom's ward is a dragonrider, so it's unlikely that particular issue would have crept into Jaxom's upbringing, unless Lytol is a single voice in a cacaphony of Hold people saying otherwise. I think the text supports this option best, because it would be a group of men headed to the Lower Caverns, Jaxom thinking about sex, then about what he said to Mirrim, then about men and sex and him, and then he takes off for the cold shower to get it out of his head. Ruth doesn't quite get it, and so thinks to shunt Jaxom to Corana because he can tell Jaxom is thinking about sex, and the mating flight is clearly influencing his psyche, although he can't quite parse it all out completely.

Anyway, Jaxom finds Corana, and he intends to have sex with her. Whether she's in the mood or consenting or not.

> Corana, recovering from surprise at his unexpected arrival, waved a welcome. Instead of rushing toward him as she usually did, she smoothed back her hair and blotted the perspiration beading her face.  
>  "Jaxom," she began as he strode toward her, the urgency in his loins increasing at the sight of her, "I wish you wouldn't-"  
>  He silenced her half-teasing scold with a kiss, felt something hard clout him along his side. Pinning her against him with his right arm, he found the offending hoe with his left hand. Wrenching it from her grasp, he spun it away from them. Corana wriggled to get free, as unprepared for this mood in him as he was. He held her closer, trying to temper the pressures rising within him until she could respond. She smelled of the earth and her own sweat. Her hair, covering his face as he kissed her throat and breast, also smelled of sun and sweat, and the odors excited him further. Somewhere in the back of his mind was a green dragon, shrieking her defiance. Somewhere, too closer to his need, was that vision of dragonriders in an inner room, waiting, with an excitement that matched his own, waiting until the green dragon had been captured by the fastest, the strongest or the smartest of her pursuers. But it was Corana he was holding in his arms, and Corana who was beginning to respond to his need. They were on the warm ground, the dampness of earth she had just hoed soft under his elbows and knees. The sun was warm on his buttocks as he tried to erase the memory of those riders half-stumbling toward the inner room, and the mocking taunt of a green dragon in flight. He did not resist or deny Ruth's familiar beloved touch as his orgasm released the turmoil of body and mind.

*sigh* I liked you a lot more when you were younger, Jaxom, before this culture got to you.

What, exactly, could Corana do in this situation that would have resulted in Jaxom not raping her, short of killing him with that hoe? (Which would bring its own consequences down on her.) If she refuses him, he's the Lord of Ruatha and can make life miserable for her. Or he can take her on a dragon ride somewhere and leave her. Or he could be violent to her. There's no way for her to escape the situation, because on Pern, like other patriarchal societies, the men hold all the power. It's why the law can take into account things like whether or not coercion was involved when there are accusations - because the boss can threaten someone's job, especially in an "at-will" employment situation, and make it seem like the firing was over something other than a refusal to have sex.

Additionally, Jaxom, Corana not going along with your desires immediately is not any sort of signal of "restrict my freedom and hold me in place until I go along with it." This whole scene is a mess and reflects horribly on Jaxom and the societies of Pern.

Other than the apparent need to show Jaxom committing rape, it's still unclear what about the mating part still has him so distressed. The text in this section does seem to support the idea that Jaxom is having trouble with the idea that he's going to have sex with another man on a mating flight, and worse, that he's going to enjoy it at least as much as he does having sex with Corana. Since there are no visible well-adjusted male couples (or polygons) for Jaxom (or us) to take cues from, despite the fact that there should be hundreds of them based on "no women dragonriders except queens!", the conclusion we have to go with us that dragonriders are not comfortable with those relationships, either, despite their reputation for sexual liberty. Which is sad and makes me wonder how an attitude like that survived all the generations of dragons and riders.

Now that he's done raping Corana, we go onward to the next day, and Jaxom takes that cold bath he was trying for yesterday, and lets Ruth out to hunt while he thinks about yesterday. Unexpectedly (at least by the standards of these books), Jaxom regrets what he has done.

> Jaxom was not pleased with himself. He was thoroughly disgusted and revolted by the way he had used Corana. The fact that she seemed to have matched what he had to admit was a violent lust dismayed him. Their relationship, once innocent pleasure, had somehow been sullied. He wasn't at all certain that he cared to continue as her lover, an attitude that posed another unpleasant burden of guilt. One point in his favor, he had helped her finish the hoeing his importunity had interrupted. That way she'd not be in trouble with Fidello for shorting her task. The young grain was important. But he ought not to have taken Corana like that. Doing so was inexcusable.

It's old Jaxom, peeking through again! And having thoughts in the place where he is best-suited, at the intersection of dragonrider and Lord Holder. It would be better for him to be thinking about this less as "oogie, man-sex" and more about how, as a powerful person, he has the ability to get sex from women who may not be consenting because they are less powerful than him. And that, if Ruth ever starts to take an interest in green or gold dragons, that he might be consumed by that lust and commit rape again. He doesn't have the indoctrination of Weyr culture that just treats dragon lust as part of reality, and Holder culture, while it clearly thinks nothing of impregnating women and leaving them to raise the kids with no support, it apparently hasn't explicitly gone far enough to approve of casual rape all the time. This could be a great opportunity for Jaxom to explore what life is being a person who wants consent in their partners being stuck in a world that basically ignores consent every time they have the opportunity.

Instead, the narrative chooses to make Ruth the mouthpiece for rape apologia. The otherwise asexual Ruth. Because, really, the only cover that the narrative can provide for that apologia, especially when Jaxom is actually feeling bad about this and would otherwise have to engage in on-page self-examination, is for it to sound like Ruth is just asking innocent questions and making innocent statements. So this quote picks up exactly where we left off:

> **She liked it very much.** Ruth's thought touched him so unexpectedly that Jaxom jerked straight.  
>  "How could you possibly know?"  
>  **When you are with Corana, her emotions are also very strong and just like yours. So I can feel her, too. Only at that time. Otherwise I do not hear her.** Acceptance rather than regret colored Ruth's tone. Almost as if he were relieved the contact was limited.  
>  [...Ruth returns from eating...]  
>  "So, do you like what you hear? Our lovemaking?" Jaxom asked, abruptly deciding to air his concern.  
>  **Yes. You enjoy it so much. It is good for you. I like it to be good for you.**  
>  Jaxom jumped to his feet, consumed by frustration and guilt. "But don't you want it for yourself? Why are you always worried about me? Why didn't you go fly that green?"  
>  **Why does that worry you? Why should I fly that green?**  
>  "Because you're a dragon."  
>  **I am a white dragon. Blues and browns, and occasionally a bronze, fly greens.**  
>  "You could have flown her. You could have flown her, Ruth!"  
>  **I did not wish to. You are upset again. I have upset you.** Ruth extended his neck, his nose gently touching Jaxom's face in apology.

Why, of course Corana likes it. It's not like sex is a biological process engineered to be pleasurable so that the human species can continue to propagate and evolve, right? Such that someone who was taken without any consent at all might appear to be enjoying the sex anyway, because biology? No, we have to be assured that it wasn't _really_ a rape, or else Jaxom would be like many other protagonists and powerful men in this series, and Jaxom is supposed to be Different. So we must be assured that Corana liked all of it, including the method and the attitude, or else Jaxom might have second thoughts about getting into relationships when he's not sure he's going to be able to do them the way he wants.

This is also the first textual possibility that we get where Ruth could be ace, or intersex - it's not that he couldn't, it's that he doesn't wish to, or that he thinks he's the wrong color for it. Ruth understands something of what the humans are doing, but doesn't want it for himself. Respect his wishes, Jaxom. He's not broken.

_[Rereading this section, I still think the author was angling to have Ruth provide convenient justification for how Corana really actually quite enjoyed her rape, in the same ways that Lessa and Brekke did, and I think that's a terrible decision to make. Having read a few studies here and there, stimulation of the right parts will produce the kind of reaction that might make an outside observer believe someone is enjoying what's happening to them, even if they're not enjoying it at all. Because, hah, we're still creatures with biologies, and part of that biology is to make use of reproductive pathways feels good, because that's a thing that we're supposed to want to do and enjoy doing._

_With a little extra work, however, it wouldn't be that hard to make Jaxom understand that Ruth's not making commentary about the moral value of what's going on, but that they're trying to state facts and they're confused about why Jaxom is having so much feeling involved about something. It could easily become something where Jaxom realizes that Ruth's asexuality is strong enough that Ruth has no frame of reference for anything that Jaxom is talking about! And that what Ruth knows about sex is what Jaxom knows and feels about sex, and possibly what Corana knows and feels about sex. Everything that Ruth says about it is in relation to how Jaxom and Corana feel about what's happening, and Ruth says they don't want to make Jaxom upset. I can imagine that with enough time and insistence from Jaxom, Ruth might go out on a mating flight, not because Ruth wants anything to do with it, but because behaving like what Jaxom expects a dragon to behave like makes Jaxom happy, and that's the important part of it, not the actual mating flight anything. We'll never get to see that, but this is one of those times where you look back on a thing and realize that with just a little more awareness or work, something that was terrible and used for terrible things could have actually been used for a lot of good, instead.]_

After this introspection, Jaxom makes busy work for himself sketching out the cove he went to before hoping back in time, using charcoal ("soft carbon stick") and paper, using "softwood tree sap" (can you get rubber of some sort from a softwood?) to erase any mistakes. Lytol appears, examines the drawing and praises its accuracy, with a remark about the large size of the volcano (which, I believe, is the first time that word has been used to describe it in-text. Unless the Records of the past mention that name and a detailed description, religion-less and myth-less Pern should not be using a name which derives from a god (Vulcan), even though we still have plenty of possible cultural artifacts that survived from the Ancients) while reminding Jaxom that he'll have an opportunity to fly with a fighting wing. With a request to be told when Jaxom plans on returning to the cove, Lytol leaves. Jaxom figures it an implicit permission to go back and find out more information about the men who went before and to collect a clutch of fire-lizard eggs while he's at it.

We're told that dragons transmit pictures to each other for use as space-time coordinates, pictures which they collect from riders. In Ruth's case, he also gets pictures from fire-lizards. So it should be possible for a dragon to assist in holding a picture, with all its details, in the mind of their rider for something like sketching. Assuming the rider has enough skill, great works of art in the form of landscape painting should be a thing in Weyrs. Or someone, maybe the Harpers, should be commissioning these kinds of works so that dragonriders have a handy reference of places they can always keep in mind, so that the knowledge of the pictures doesn't depend on oral transmission, which we have already seen fail spectacularly with regard to a lot of the other Crafts. 

The next morning, Jaxom heads to the Weyr (by normal air, as his damp, wet, and hyperspace affairs from yesterday have made him sick ("caught a cold", which is an idiomatic phrase on Terra, so I'm not sure it would survive on Pern, either)) and we finally get to see preparation for Threadfall. The first phase is building sacks of firestone and getting Ruth to chew up a lot of it so that his second stomach will be generating enough gas to be lit up by the time they contact Thread. After that, assignments are distributed - Ruth gets to fly with the queens' wing, which Ruth is happy about but Jaxom feels slighted over. Which casually nullifies our opportunity to see the whole process. Jaxom is fighting his cold and mostly gets to observe the fighting dragons attack. His position in the queens' wing is mostly to be a mobile turret to provide extra firepower on whichever side of the wing has highest concentration of Thread that has escaped the upper wings. After finishing up and being sent home early so as not to be seen by the ground crews, there's shared happiness at having actually fought Thread and avoided getting hit, although Ruth is ready to vomit up the fire ash as soon as possible. After which, both of them head quickly to the cove on the Southern continent, and our chapter ends.

No doubt there will be Shenanigans.


	14. Sickness Supreme

Last time, Jaxom contemplated the reality of Ruth and mating fights, worked up into a list by the mating flight, then raped Corana for it, and the narrative used Ruth as the apologia mouthpiece to assure us Corana liked it. And then Jaxom got to fight Thread with the queens' wing. 

**The White Dragon: Chapter XIII: Content Notes: Boundary Violation, "Nice Girl" attitudes, patriarchal attitudes, toxic masculinity writ large**

(15.7.7-15.8.7)

Jaxom awakens in Chapter XIII to find out that his cold is not an actual cold, but instead the fever referred to as fire-head, and that his fever has finally broken. Brekke is tending to him, as is Sharra, and they inform him that Menolly caught it, too.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Healers should be studying the absolute _shit_ out of this, especially since they have medicine that can treat it, and because it seems like just about everyone from the north who goes south, and many people in the south, get this and have to go through it. Possibly repeatedly. As much as Pern seems to be a place that runs on the theory that suffering builds character and credibility (unless you're a woman, then you just deserve it for being female), I'm pretty sure everyone would be in favor of finding a method to stop people from getting fire-head in the first place. It's too bad that the settlers apparently lost the ability to vaccinate, have lost the ability to try and figure out where fire-head tends to congregate, and haven't apparently done a whole lot about figuring out preventative medicine.

Considering the symptoms as described to us, which is apparently a fever, significant fluid loss, light sensitivity to the point of optic damage if exposed to too much light, weakness of body, and having a headache sufficiently strong that moving the head in any way causes great pain (as Jaxom finds out when Ruth tells him he hasn't eaten while Jaxom was down), to the point where Jaxom's head gets immobilized, I would think the Healers would want to be all over this disease and trying to cure it. This should be one of those points where we hear about scientific inquiry going on.

_[As the comments would point out, vaccination is something that would play an essential part in Moreta, so much so that it should not have fallen out of any sort of medical practice, ever. Further compounding the problem, the Todd books make the very questionable decision to have the settlers basically abandon vaccination because there won't be enough technology to manufacture them safely and apply them with sterility guaranteed, so entire generations of Pernese can die from preventable communicable diseases. Which is to say, these are monstrous decisions being made by people who are theoretically trying to avoid doing harm, assuming something like the Hippocratic Oath survives in any sort of way. Then again, we saw that Oldive was more than willing to be complicit in torture, so perhaps we shouldn't have quite as high of expectations of how Healers will behave. Or what they will remember.]_

Anyway, with careful instructions and juice laced with sedative, Jaxom recovers, nonplussed that Sharra is fully a healer, rather than one of Brekke's fosterlings. (Which reminds me - I don't think we ever find out which Craft Brekke came from. Maybe she's a Healer?) _[She was.]_ Although the text hints he might be getting a bit of Florence Nightingale Syndrome with Sharra. Later on, N'ton gives Jaxom hell about going off to fight Thread while sick, (his exact threat is to throw Jaxom to Lessa's mercies, which still says bad things about what the men consider the worst possible punishment for a dragonrider, and what the narrative thinks Lessa is) and compliments Ruth on having a good presence of mind instead of being affected by Jaxom's confusion to the point of uselessness.

Then Jaxom confirms he's got an infatuation with his nurse, but in a really Rape Culture way:

> "My eyes are just fine, Sharra," he replied, catching her hand in his, keeping her where he could see her clearly in the dim light. "Oh, no, you don't," he said with a low laugh as she tried to break his hold. "I've been waiting to see what you looked like." With his free hand, he pushed aside the hair that covered her face.  
>  "And?" She crowed the word in proud defiance, unconsciously straightening her shoulders and tossing her hair back.  
>  Sharra was not pretty. He'd expected that. Her features were too irregular, in particular her nose was too long for her face, and though her chin was well shaped it was a shade too firm for beauty. But her mouth had a lovely double curve, the left side twitching as she contained the humor which her deep-set eyes echoed. She arched her left eyebrow slowly, amused by his scrutiny.  
>  "And?" she repeated.  
>  "I know you may not agree but **I** think you're beautiful!" He resisted her second attempt to free her hand and rise. "You must be aware that you have a beautiful speaking voice."  
>  "I have tried to cultivate **that** ," she said.  
>  "You've succeeded." He exerted pressure on her hand, pulling her still closer. It was immensely important to him to determine her age.  
>  She laughed softly, wriggling her fingers in his tight grasp. "Let me go now, Jaxom, be a good boy."  
>  "I am not good and I am not a boy." He had spoken with a low intensity which drove the good-natured amusement from her expression. She returned his gaze steadily and then gave him a small smile.  
>  "No, you're neither good nor a boy. You've been a very sick man and it's my job," she stressed the word just slightly as he let her withdraw her hand from his, "to make you well again."  
>  "The sooner, the better." Jaxom lay back, smiling up at her. She'd be nearly his height when he stood, he thought. That they would be able to look eye to eye appealed to him.  
>  She gave him one long, sightly puzzled look and then, with a cryptic shrug, turned away from him, gathering her hair and twining it neatly about her head as she left the room.

_[That's a two-cocowhat foul, Jaxom.]_

There is so much wrong with this. Apparently Jaxom has learned nothing from his previous worries about what he did to Corana, because he's just done them again, with the exception of the actual rape, to Sharra. Who, in my head, refrained from flattening Jaxom because she didn't want to have to nurse him longer, and because she knew Brekke wouldn't approve. This enterprise might also sound or be familiar to the women in the audience - the jerk that violates your bodily autonomy to deliver their judgment on your attractiveness, with the expectation of reciprocation, or at least you not screaming at him to get away from you, because he has the culture on his side and can make you out to be a frigid bitch, or worse, someone who needs "correction", because he was _just giving you a compliment, lighten up_. The only thing we're not sure of is whether Jaxom is drunk on his sedatives, but there's no indication in the text of this, so we have to go with Jaxom meaning every word of it, and Sharra giving him the nice girl act until she can get away from him safely. What the hell, Jaxom? What the hell?

As Jaxom recovers more, he tries to ask of Brekke whether he said anything embarrassing while in his fever, and Brekke reassures him that they don't pay much attention to fevered ramblings. Jaxom is thinking about the secret of who returned the egg, but the way Brekke dismisses his fear, we're suppressed to believe that his exchange with Sharra is thought of as fevered ramblings. Which makes this the second time in as many chapters that the narrative has had to rescue Jaxom from doing something that would earn him a solid condemnation from most readers, and possibly a couple people actually inside the narrative. Jaxom has internalized the worst aspects of both of the cultures he's a part of and is losing the things that made him such a good character when he was younger.

Also, Brekke's remark suggests that Jaxom is not the first of the fever-recovering to make such advances on their nurses. Which says a lot about what kind of underpinnings Pern runs on, if in their unguarded, drug-induced states, the men of the culture are trying to get in the pants of Brekke, Sharra, and other women Healers. 

To prevent us from dwelling too long on the implications of what Jaxom has done, Lytol arrives, by dragonback, to see Jaxom. Which is treated as the serious affair that it is, and then Lytol gives Jaxom a "[Well Done, Son Guy](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WellDoneSonGuy)" hug and comment about how he needs to improve his memory, as the trees are wrong. Which Jaxom was going to check on, before illness. It's the part of the movie where the serious injury and/or near death experience has finally pierced the outer shell of the Manly Man and he is able to show affection and all of the normal parental love that a well-adjusted child should already be getting from his adopted father figure. Doubly so, considering his dad was killed and his mom died giving birth to him. Jaxom is happy that the rift he believes he caused by Impressing Ruth has finally healed, and after Lytol leaves, Groghe arrives to examine Jaxom's condition, brought by D'ram, who was apparently okay with being found and brought back to the present. (Perhaps Jaxom found him at the end of his mourning period instead of the beginning - after all, we only know that D'ram was in the place at the time Jaxom went to - nothing said about whether he was there before then.) Sharra and Brekke suspect ulterior motives in Groghe's appearance, but nobody can prove anything. And Sharra lets Jaxom know that not only did he nearly die from the fire-head, but that the fever he just recovered from lasted sixteen days. Which Jaxom understands the sudden seriousness to mean that Sharra lost someone to fire head, but we don't know who, since she won't say. (Again, Healers should be looking for cures, protective measures, and more.)

The next day brings the Benden Weyrleaders, who believe that Lord Groghe will start sending people southward, now that he's seen the beautiful land next to the volcano, so the dragonriders are thinking they should move in first and accelerate their plans. Which hints at some sort of custom that hasn't been fully explained, or for that matter, ever explicitly acknowledged - that the first person to settle and claim a place for themselves has it, however big or small their claim. Yet, from previous books, we hear about Holder sons fighting over claims, and there was also Fax, who went out and conquered other people's Holds. So the idea of first claim is clearly not a universal, and the people who have the ability to enforce their will on everyone else, either by big angry dragons or by time-warping themselves so they were there first, shouldn't be nearly as concerned as they are about claims. (Maybe the Harpers threaten to make people pariahs if they don't adhere to the conventions.)

Lessa still needs to be reassured that the fire lizards congregating around Ruth are not from Southern Weyr (and how, exactly, do the Benden Weyrleaders plan to deal with Southern when they move in en masse to the continent?), but they set Jaxom to the idea of learning more about the fire lizards and the men that they remember. 

And Jaxom is a jerk again.

> He thought about his guardian's visit. So Lytol did like him. Shells! He'd forgotten to ask Lytol about Corana. He ought to have sent her some kind of word. She must have heard of his illness. Not but what this didn't make it easier for him to complete the break in their relationship. Now that he'd seen Sharra, he couldn't have continued with Corana. He must remember to ask Lytol.

Okay, first, Jaxom, using your illness as an excuse to break up with her is a dick move. Second, how are you so certain you want to pursue Sharra or that she's interested in you at all? Piemur will try it (since Dragondrums is published after The White Dragon) and get a no-sell, even though he has the same sort of infatuation with her that Jaxom does. And third, you really owe Corana something more than a breakup by proxy, especially if you find out you have to make arrangements for a son or daughter. You might escape consequences this time, but the more you do these kinds of things, the more likely consequences will catch up to you. That is, unless the narrative shields you like it has done for so many others.

Recovery proceeds slowly, with Jaxom getting an understanding, thanks to a visit from the Brown Rider Rapist, that other dragonriders (and Ruth, without Jaxom aboard) have been fighting off the Threadfall that's been going on while he's been recovering. Apparently, Ruth is very protective and effective at fighting Thread, and has been getting plenty of praise (and fire-lizards washing out the firestone stink) while he's at it. There's some awkwardness between Brekke and her "weyrmate" (Brekke doesn't embrace him, but just rests her hand on his arm. Sharra is watching this, with a "peculiar expression" that vanishes as soon as she realizes Jaxom's watching her), but everything goes smoothly. Then there's Threadfall, with running commentary by Ruth, and another pointing-out that the marine life really loves drowned Thread. The chapter closes, after cleaning of the dragons, with the news of a queen flight at Ista Weyr (which was the subject of the meeting back before D'ram left for the South and the past).

And I think this chapter could probably have been cut, since the most important parts of it apart to be "Jaxom hits on Sharra and is convinced she's a good match, and Jaxom recovers from fire-head." Which could probably be done some other way while the plot advances, but it appears the narrative is very invested in Jaxom's feels, even if they're not plot-relevant.


	15. The Flying Circus

Last chapter, we spent quite a bit of time with Jaxom recovering from a fever, which resulted in him for deciding to break up with Corana and pursue Sharra, who he didn't necessarily find attractive in his description. 

**The White Dragon: Chapter XIV: Content Notes:**

The chapter opens with the news of the impending mating flight D'ram had mentioned earlier in the book to the Benden Weyrleaders, delivered to Robinton by Silvina with a cup of klah. Robinton places a wager with the dragonrider come to collect him (by proxy, of course, and a fairly hefty bet - two marks), and the two arrive at the spectacle of a gold dragon getting ready to mate, which is in stark contrast to the way the green dragon took off and had pursuers a few chapters ago. As the young dragons wait, two aging bronzes from Southern arrive, flying low to escape detection for as long as possible. The bronzes take their place, and the riders (T'kul and B'zon) are greeted by a welcoming party of D'ram, Robinton, and the Benden Weyrleader. The three try to dissuade the Southerners from joining in the flight, but T'kul rightly points out that D'ram said it was an open flight, and the options available to the South are pretty limited, now that they have queens that are too old to lay eggs and someone took back the egg they stole.

The Benden Weyrleader then delivers the biggest line of bullshit he could in this situation.

> "Had you come to us, we would have helped you."

You _exiled_ them, remember? If you expected them, proud as they were, to come back to you, hat in hand, asking forgiveness and accepting your leadership, then your optimism alone could power several of Fandarel's batteries. They attempted to stab you while you were trying to get to Threadfall, O leader of dragons. At what point did you honestly expect them to ask for your help? You engineered this very scenario, and you have the audacity to say that you could have been diverted from your course, had they but asked for help? **  
_Bullshit._  
**

The Benden Weyrleader has convinced himself of the lie, though, as he repeats it after realizing he can't persuade either of the Southerners to give up the opportunity and the mating flight begins.

> "If they had come to us..." F'lar began, placing his hand consolingly on D'ram's. "But those Oldtimer riders always **took**! That was their error at the outset!" His face hardened.  
>  "They're still taking," Robinton said, wanting to ease D'ram's distress. "They've taken what they wanted from the North all along. Here, there. What pleased them. Young girls, material, stone, iron, jewels. They looted with quiet system ever since they were exiled. I have the reports. I've given them to F'lar."  
>  "If only they had asked!" F'lar looked upward at the fast-dwindling specks of dragons in flight.

Oh, that's incredibly sanctimonious bullshit from the Benden Weyrleader. I think he's trying very hard here to convince himself of that truth, rather than anybody else. And nobody has yet acknowledged whether or not Lessa would be on board with that kind of help, since she's now the one with the "irrational" desires and emotions.

Also, the dragonrider really has no leg to stand on talking about taking from people, when he is the recipient of a tribute and taxation program that takes things from other people. That others were taking from his subjects, or from his stores, sure, but not that they were taking, period. And what's with the list that Robinton provided of what's being taken? Why are we leading with "young girls" instead of the other things? Are were supposed to believe that the young girls are the most valuable resource for the dragonriders to be stealing? Presumably, if they need a queen rider, then they only really needed one. What are the others being used for? And how does this idea of the girls being valuable square with all the misogyny that's been on display for all of these books so far? It's not like anyone has been showing women respect, whether part of Hold, Weyr, or Craft, outside of the Smiths, maybe.

_[The comments remind me that we already know what they're being used for, as we've seen it at least alluded to in previous books, and it's basically nothing good for them if they're snatched by dragonriders for their purposes. Most of them aren't being used as gold dragon candidates, anyway.]_

After all of this self-serving justification for everything, the assembled groups settle in to wait out the mating flight. Robinton is observing and puzzling over the remarks made about the return of the egg as he ignores a rather strong and persistent pressure in his side. He realizes nobody from Southern would have returned the egg, but he also wonders why T'kul went South and whether someone neutral should be in the chambers, just in case one of the old dragons dies and their rider does something horrible from the resulting insanity. When he goes to make the suggestion to the Benden Weyrleader, he finds that the Weyrleader has already gone to the chambers, having had similar worries. When the conflagration erupts from the death of T'kul's dragon, Robinton is trying to get to the queen's chamber, but has to convince Mnementh to let him and others by to give the Benden Weyrleader help. He's a bit grateful for the stop, having to catch his breath after running. When they reach the chambers, T'kul and the Benden Weyrleader are locked in mortal combat (again with the Benden Weyrleader getting into knife fights), with T'kul ready to drive his knife into the Weyrleader's neck, before having his feet knocked out from under him. As the fight continues, it's pretty clear that T'kul knows exactly who to blame for these circumstances, and who he's going to get revenge on - for his dragon dying, for his exile, for T'ron, for all of it. This fight ends like all the others have, with the convenient distraction this time provided by the shriek of the Weyrwoman as her dragon is caught, and another antagonist with a knife between his ribs.

Oh, and speaking of chests, that persistent pain had migrated from Robinton's side to his chest, and he can't understand why he feels so weak at this point. Apparently, the idea of a heart attack hasn't survived down the generations, so all Robinton can do at this point is call for help. Which arrives, strangely enough, in the form of Lessa, some medicine, and a very insistent set of voices telling him he can't go to sleep yet.

> **Harper, Harper, listen to us. Now listen to us. Harper, don't sleep. Stay with us. Harper, we need you. We love you. Listen to us.**  
>  The voices in his head were unfamiliar. He wished they would be silent so that he could think about the pain in his chest and the sleep he so desperately craved.  
>  **Harper, you cannot leave us. You must stay. Harper, we love you.**  
>  The voices puzzled him. He didn't know them. It wasn't Lessa or F'lar speaking. The voices were deep, insistent, and he wasn't hearing them with his ears. The voices were in his mind where he couldn't ignore them. He wished they would leave him alone so that he could sleep.

As addled as he is, Robinton doesn't understand that it is Ramoth and Mnementh keeping him alive and mentally there until Lessa can give him the medicine and Oldive can press some cold instruments to his chest and everyone understands that he's going to stay alive from his heart attack. The chapter ends with him asking about the mating flight, and he learns that Benden's and D'ram's chosen candidate was the winner of the flight, so his bet is also going to come through.

That said, um, the [Schizo Tech](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SchizoTech) world that is Pern continues, because while Robinton doesn't recognize the heart attack while it's going on (I suppose Pern doesn't have the benefit of there's public health campaigns that we do when it comes to things like recognizing the signs of a heart attack), Master Oldive has a stethoscope (most likely the cold instrument) and either nitroglycerin pills or digitalis to give Robinton to counteract the problem. Or the Pernese equivalent thereof, as well as the capacity to convert it to a powdered or otherwise transportable form and then make pills or capsules out of it. Which, you know, suggests some pretty impressive manufacturing ability on this planet. Despite being supposedly a place that's a pastiche of the Italian city-states. It's like the author can't decide on how much old technology survived. Or is making it up as needed to advance the plot.

_[The comments to this entry point out that pill-making is a lot older technology than someone of a 20th- or 21st-century Terran audience would think, and that the while Robinton is presenting the classic signs and symptoms of a heart attack, actually recognizing those signs and symptoms in yourself is not as easy as I would have thought it would have been. The first heart attack that someone in the family suffered manifested first as a persistent toothache, rather than any sort of chest pain. And for someone like Robinton, who is presumably constantly on the move, anything other than a thing that will flatten him is likely to get ignored in favor of doing more work.]_


	16. The Big Crash

Last chapter, as seems to be customary in Pern novels, disaster struck at a mating flight. Involving the Benden Weyrleader. Thankfully, the women involved escaped unscathed. However, T'kul sent his bronze to die trying to mate and himself to try and kill the Benden Weyrleader in the post-death rage. He failed, and Robinton suffered a heart attack.

**The White Dragon: Chapter XV: Content Notes: Forcing-a-woman feels, male discard of woman's opinion, patriarchy discarding women**

Chapter XV begins back with Jaxom as the news of Salth (T'kul's dragon) reaches Ruth and Brekke. (This whole cutting away just as the situation resolves thing is getting very old, really.) This sparks off a heated discussion between Sharra, who says "good riddance to the suicidal asshole", Brekke, who is still on the party line that everyone should be grateful that the time-skipped Weyrs came forward at all, and Jaxom, who is more on Sharra's side than Brekke's. They can't get too far into it, though, because the new news that the dragonriders are fighting and Robinton's heart attack comes through and causes everyone to get all panicked, but nobody is able to go anywhere to help because Jaxom still needs to recover, and pushing him into hyperspace could cause the same lethal results that another dragonrider suffered. Which was the lost patient Sharra didn't want to talk about. Until Jaxom says he can send Ruth (the healthy dragon) with Brekke (the healthy rider) to help with the problems. And off goes Brekke. Which leaves Jaxom alone with Sharra, and we know that Jaxom has Feels for Sharra.

> Jaxom was intensely aware, at this highly inopportune moment, [Sharra's great concern that Robinton live] of Sharra's vibrant body pressing against his. He could feel her warmth through the thin fabric of her shirt, the long line of her thighs against his, the fragrance of her hair, scented with sun and a blossom she had tucked behind her ear. The startled look that crossed her face told him that she, too, was aware of the intimacy of their positions - aware and, for the first time since he had known her, confused.  
>  He eased his grip on her hands, ready to release her completely if necessary. Sharra was not Corana, not a simple Hold girl obedient to the Lord of her Hold. Sharra was not a bed partner for a passing indulgence of desire. Sharra was too important to him to risk destroying their relationship with an ill-timed demonstration. He was also aware that Sharra thought that his feelings for her stemmed from a natural gratitude for her nursing. He'd thought of that possibility in himself and decided that she was wrong. He liked too many things about her, from the sound of her beautiful voice, to the sure touch of her hands: hands he was aching to have caress him. He'd learned a good deal about her in the past few days, but he was aware of a hungry curiosity in himself to know much, much more. Her reaction to the Southerners surprised him; she often surprised him. Part of her attraction, he supposed, was that he never knew what she'd say or how she'd say it.

This does not actually lead to sexytimes, which is restraint not normally seen in Pernese men. It also gives credence to the idea that Jaxom's behavior previously was a result of his fever, but all that really does is say that Jaxom was uninhibited, not that the things he thinks were different. That said, I still trust Sharra more than I do Jaxom at this point, because Jaxom continues to be a jerk, even here, with the way he's casually discarding Corana (who he admits was meant to be more of a roll in the hay with a subordinate that couldn't refuse him than a serious relationship, which means any lessons from Lytol about the power he wields and the great damage he can do to people with it have gone unheeded, if they existed in the first place) in favor of his new infatuation, Sharra. So far, it seems like her novelty is what has him excited, more than any sort of shared bond or elements that would build a lasting friendship or relationship. The one good thing is that a Jaxom in control of himself at least is willing to let Sharra go as needed, rather than trying to keep her like his fevered self did.

While Jaxom and Sharra play the waiting game, Piemur arrives to check up on Jaxom and Sharra, with a string of invective preceding his actual appearance, courtesy Stupid. But before we get to hear anything of that meeting, the action shifts away to the Benden Weyrleaders, who have cleaned up the mess, put everyone who isn't having a romp in a drunken stupor, and are now sitting down to discuss the day's issues. The unprecedented event of dragons linking their minds to make sure that Robinton didn't die and the interesting situation of Brekke arriving on Ruth are given a sentence or two, despite both of these acts clearly crossing the boundaries of what was previously thought possible. Lessa has almost changed her mind on fire-lizards, having seen them at work in helping with Robinton (but only almost). The question of what to do with the Southern Weyr returns, and this will get the biggest treatment.

> "...If only you'd killed T'ron at Telgar Hold..."  
>  "Lessa!" He gripped her fingers so tightly she winced. "T'ron's Fidaranth was very much alive at Telgar Hold. I couldn't cause **his** death no matter what insult T'ron had given me. T'kul I could kill with pleasure. Though I admit, he nearly had me. Our Harper's not the only one who's Turning old."

This is weird. Unless you believe in the idea that the dragons exert some form of control over the humans to prevent the deaths of their own kind (the Transtemporal Security Agency determines who acceptable targets are, maybe?), or the Benden Weyrleader has some form of TRADITION so ingrained into him that he can't kill a dragon, even though he has plenty of reasons to kill dragonriders to consolidate or reassert his station as the leader of the dragonriders. Only T'kul, and only after his dragon is dead, can be killed safely and with pleasure.

> "I will go south and take charge of the Weyr," D'ram said. He'd entered, quiet with weariness, while they were talking. "I am, after all, an Oldtimer..." He gave a deep sigh. "They will accept from me what they would not endure from you, F'lar."  
>  [...some dithering about whether D'ram is healthy enough to take on the responsibilities...]  
>  "Any help we can give..."  
>  "I'll take you at your word. I'll need some greens [...from other Weyrleaders, preferably time-skipped...]. I'll need two younger bronzes, and enough blues and browns to make up two fighting wings."  
>  "The Southern dragonriders haven't fought Thread in Turns," F'lar said with contempt.  
>  "I know that. But it's time they did. That would give the dragonriders who remain purpose and strength. It would give their riders hope and occupation." D'ram's face was stern. "I learned things from B'zon today that grieve me. I have been so blind..."

Not to ask a question in the middle of what is a brilliant political move, but how do T'ron and Mardra feel about that, considering they are still alive as of the last book? I don't think they're just going to give up the leadership of the Southern Weyr just because D'ram comes down and says that Benden put him in charge.

Speaking of brilliant politics, why didn't something like this get done as soon as the initial rage subsided from what T'ron did? Instead of letting things fester in resentment, producing this situation and all the thievery that's been going on, why not figure out how to get a sympathetic person as administrator of Southern, and then keep them supplied to ensure that exile is a happy thing, maybe with a single queen to keep things going until all the exiled South is dead, and a new, functional, loyal Weyr can be installed? If Benden is able to play the long game, they come out way ahead.

As they talk, Lessa admits that if T'kul had come asking, she would have sent him off with nothing and that she didn't really want to think about what was going on in the South, so now we know why they let the South stay an enemy. Except that still relies on Lessa as not the revenge-oriented long-term planner that she was in Dragonflight, but this new, hair-trigger temper Lessa that has been in place since Dragonquest. I still prefer old Lessa to new Lessa.

D'ram is also charged with doing this so that the Lords Holder don't take all that dragonrider land in the South. Because the Benden Weyrleader believes the next Interval will have the same problems this one did with grumbly Holders not sending tribute, and there's still this odd thing about whoever gets there first gets the land. 

The chapter winds down with Sebell arriving to look in at Robinton, as well as Oldive. And everyone ruminating a bit about delegation, as well as the thought that Robinton's wine habit may have helped keep him alive. (Which, yes, red wine can help with heart health. In moderation, which I'm not sure Robinton ever knew.)


	17. Profaning the Sacred

Last time, everyone at Benden Weyr contemplated the reality of getting old, while Jaxom spun his wheels with Piemur and Sharra. D'ram accepted the responsibility of going South to make sure stupidity didn't happen and to keep the Lords Holder from annexing land the dragonriders have already put dibs on.

**The White Dragon, Chapter XVI: Content Notes: Sexism, Misogyny**

(15.8.28-15.9.7)

The chapter opens with a relay of the news of the last chapters to Piemur, who takes it in stride, by which we mean

> the young journeyman treated them to a colorful description of his Master's follies, shortcomings, stupid loyalties and altruistic hopes that quite stunned the listeners until they saw the tears leaking down Piemur's cheeks.

Which is par for the course when it comes to someone you admire greatly.

Ruth's return scatters Stupid to the weeds, and Piemur reminds us that Stupid is not actually stupid, and that his tendency to hide in the presence of dragons has been useful on his secret mission to stomp about the South and explore, precipitated by Toric sending North some very attractive metals, which drew Robinton's attention to investigate, both for the metal and the likelihood of dragonriders deciding to head South at the next Interval. As usual, Robinton knows what people are going to do, using his extensive spy network of Harpers, long before everyone else has a clue on what to do about it. Piemur mentions the Benden Weyrleader as "the only one that matters" on the upcoming decision, a notion that Sharra removes from him with pointed mention of Toric. (That said, Piemur is right - the people with the large weapons of war are the important people in a land discussion.)

Piemur boasts about the size of Southern, the things that are there, and praises Stupid as an impressive runnerbeast, far better on foraged food than the best stock of Piemur's family, before mentioning that his final destination is still before him, and casually mentioning and showing a scarred leg while he asks to rest longer.

> "I can't walk any farther on that, now can I, Sharra?"  
>  "No, I don't think you should, Piemur," Jaxom said, critically examining the healed wound. "Do you, Sharra?"  
>  She looked from one to the other and then began to shake her head, her eyes dancing.  
>  "No, positively not. It needs soaking in warm salt water, and plenty of sun, and you're a terrible rascal, Piemur. Just as well you're not a posted Harper! You'd scandalize any sensible Holder!"

Bzuh? Maybe I'm forgetting something at this point, but aren't Harpers supposed to be in everybody's business (discreetly, of course) and regularly traveling between Holds, Weyrs, Crafthalls, and the like so that information and propaganda get spread properly to those that need it? Is it Piemur's willingness to explore the wilderness and find interesting things that would be scandalous? I'm not understanding what the scandal part is, unless it's Piemur getting hurt in the first place.

Continuing, Jaxom, our student Holder, asks the important questions about documentation:

> "Have you kept any Records of your traveling?" Jaxom asked, keenly interested and just a shade jealous of Piemur's freedom.  
>  "Have **I** kept Records?" Piemur snorted derisively. "Most of what Stupid packs **is** Records! Why do you think I'm wearing rags? I haven't had room to carry spare clothes." His voice lowered and he leaned urgently toward Jaxom. "You don't just happen to have any of Bendarek's leaves down here, do you? There are a couple of--"  
>  "Plenty of leaves. Drawing tools as well. C'mon!"

And the two of them dart off to where Jaxom has been keeping his drawings and maps. And here, we have another oddity. Piemur comments on Jaxom's decision to use Ruth as the unit of measurement (I assume this is the length of Ruth, stretched tip to tail) and says that for his maps, he's using the distance that Farli, his fire-lizard queen, can fly per second (with corrections for wind). Which suggests there is a lack of standardized measurements on Pern.

_[There's a Cocowhat here.]_

This seems absurd. If I recall correctly, Weyrs have talked about dragonlengths as a unit of measure before, but if each rider's measure is keyed to the length of their own dragon, we have a problem. Actually, if it's keyed to the length of any dragon other than a historical or hypothetical one, we have a problem.

Additionally, Wansor has equations that predict orbital mechanics, Fandarel is building electronics, and _there's an entire Craft system turning out goods for sale and use_. I don't have to know what those units are, I suppose, although it would be an awkward story to tell that had standard units but nobody actually says what they are, but there's no way they don't exist. Jaxom and Piemur are both students at the Smithcrafthall. And map-makers. One of the _first_ things they would be taught is what the standard measures of distance are and how to represent them accurately in scale drawings. There should be no reason for variant measures, especially under Mr. Efficiency himself. That way, nobody worries if Ruth grows or Farli hits a headwind.

Beyond this, Piemur explains that between him, Stupid, and Farli, the three of them do well as surveyors, since Farli does well with concepts and Stupid keeps Piemur alive by funding drinkable water and avoiding treacherous ground. We also learn that green fire-lizards abandon their clutches, which makes them ready prey for tunnel snakes, while golds stick around to kill off any would-be predators. It doesn't make sense to me why two variations of the same species would adopt different strategies for passing on their genes to the next generation, but nature could very well be that odd.

The next day, all three go to a fire lizard clutch to collect the eggs (frightening off the queen, which really should cause an ethical pang about whether it's okay to raid a sentient being's nest for your own purposes) and Piemur speculates why the ancients left the South, thinking the earthquakes might have something to do with it. Specifically:

> "Not where the earth drops beneath your feet and two paces beyond you lifts above your head half a dragonlength."

ARGHBLRABJEK ARGELFASTER *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk* Tell he again why we're using nonstandard units?

On the way back, Piemur recounts that he and N'ton watched a volcano spring up above the water line, spew rock and ash, and then build itself an island. Apparently tectonics moves a lot faster on Pern, as even a small volcano wouldn't just pop up and build itself an island that quickly, would it? Either way, all three appear to have a shared dream of a large volcano erupting and people fleeing from it after they get back to camp, having hacked their way through rather than taken the beach way home.

The next day heralds the arrival of the Brown Rider Rapist, delivering news that a Crafthall is to be built at the spot of the cove for Robinton, who is traveling on Master Idarolan's (the Mastershipbuilder?) _[Masterfisher.]_ fastest boat, with Menolly and Brekke. Because the last time he traveled by ship, there was turbulence and a lot of illness and that's totally okay for the man still recovering from a heart attack. Who did Robinton have to charm to get out this early? Did Oldive give his blessing?

Piemur subtly points out that all the beginning mapping probably should have been done by dragonriders, who have no trouble going to destinations or with flying high enough to be able to sketch out things without worrying about scale.

Sharra takes a look at the proposed plans and starts redrawing them in the sand so as to actually make the place comfortable for Robinton, based on her many years of living in the South, where things are hot, breezy, and basically Thread-immune...

> "Oh, you dragonriders! This is Southern, not the North. It's all been grubbed. Thread sears a leaf every sevenday or so, but the plant heals itself. Meanwhile, you're coming into the hot season and, believe me, you'll want as much green about you as possible to keep cool. You want to build off the ground, on pilings. There's plenty of reef rock for foundations. You want wide windows, not the tiny slits, to catch every breeze. All right, you can shutter them if you want to but I've lived south all my life, so I know how you should build here. You want windows, and corridors straight through the interior for breezeways..." As she spoke, she was delineating the revised hold with strokes that were strong enough to stay in the hot dry sand. "And you want an outdoor hearth for so many. Brekke and I did most of our baking here in stone pits," she pointed to the spot on the cove, "and you don't really need a bathing room with the cove a few steps from the door."  
>  "You don't object to piped water, do you?"  
>  "No, that would be handier than lugging it from the stream. Only put another tap in the cooking area as well as one in the house. Perhaps even a tank by the hearth so we can have hot water, too..."  
>  "Anything else, Masterbuilder?" F'nor was more amused and admiring than sarcastic.  
>  "I'll let you know when the thought occurs to me," she replied with dignity.  
>  F'nor grinned at her and then frowned down at her drawing.

You know, there's a couple ways of interpreting this that I can think of, and they're both potentially bad for Sharra. One is that the Brown Rider Rapist is patronizing Sharra and the narrative is covering for him by telling us that he's totally impressed with her instead of snarking her because she's a woman, a Hold woman, no less, telling the great dragonrider how to build things, as if she had a say in anything. He'll indulge her and then ignore her when it comes to actual building.

The other is that his amusement and admiration are because the Brown Rider Rapist is actually quite turned on by bossy women and enjoys it. Brekke was his nurse and ordered him around on a regular basis before, and from that, he earned his moniker with her. What's to say he won't try it again, even with Brekke there?

There's nothing wrong with him being kinky that way, really. It's just that he's chosen to express himself by rape the last time he had a thing for someone.

Sharra is not in a good situation right now - Jaxom, who has shown he can rape, is infatuated with her. The Brown Rider Rapist may be infatuated with her based on this. Piemur seemed like he had an infatuation with Sharra from Dragondrums, and his behavior with her here doesn't dissuade me from thinking he still has it. Which puts at least three men who might act on their desires without consent (two of which have already acted on desires for others without consent), in close proximity to her. This just sounds like a bad setup.

Also, in the annals of Pern technology, the planet now has access to running water on demand, through some manner of pump, whether manual or electric, and/or the Archimedes screw, none of which was in evidence before this book. I presume the Masterfarmer is thrilled with the new ability to irrigate fields regardless of their proximity to running water, and there have already been fights over water rights with regard to rivers, lakes, streams, and other fresh water sources. Since Piemur mentions having to find fresh water on his journey, desalination and sterilization is not sufficiently advanced to be portable, if it exists at all. I have to assume Fandarel had a hand in this somehow, and his inspiration might be the naturally refreshing pool Lessa took a bath in all the way back in Dragonflight. The presence of outdoor plumbing should make way for some very interesting innovation in the North and the South, and surely indoor plumbing will soon follow.

The construction of the proposed location is going a lot slower than planned, as not even the mighty dragonriders can fell trees with any speed, as the fruit trees resist the axes significantly, and those who have been swinging have blisters after a half day of work dropping six trees. (Except Piemur, who is already presumably calloused from all the axe work he has already done) The Brown Rider Rapist is confused at how supposed softwoods in the grubbed lands resist getting punctured by foreign objects intending to kill them before tactics change to asking the dragons to move the trees and marking out the foundations with rock.

I don't know much about trees, but I suspect their root systems would probably give the dragons a good strength contest to see who budges first. Maybe the dragons bite the trees and leave a stump? Or excavate with their limbs and then pull up? Or possibly try to touch as many of the trees as possible and pop into hyperspace with them? We'll never know.

After work is done for the first day, we are reminded that Sharra is still sitting in a dangerous position.

> Sharra took pity on their aching muscles and rubbed salve that smelled aromatic and burned pleasantly into the soreness. Jaxom liked to think that she spent more time massaging his back than Piemur's. He'd been glad to see the young Harper and was fascinated by the Records and the charts he was drawing from his travels, but he did wish that Piemur had taken a day or two before he'd reached the camp. There was no way he could consolidate his hold on her attentions with a third party about.

And we're right back in creepy stalker-ville, courtesy Jaxom. Exactly what, past the obvious male privilege at work on Pern, makes you think you have a claim on Sharra, Jaxom? Your fantasies have reached a dangerous level, to the point where I expect you to follow in the Brown Rider Rapist's footsteps for both technique and lack of consent. Brekke should probably be taking Sharra aside and suggesting that she take a flight back to Southern to change out for a new nurse, recognizing the same look on Jaxom's face that she ignored with her own attacker.

The next morning heralds the arrival of the Mastersmith, the Masterwoodsman, the Fort Weyrleader, and a wingleader from Benden, possibly T'gellan, whose rank is identifiable by his shoulder knots, along with an entourage of apprentices and weyrlings.

*headdesk* *headdesk*

This is the sixth book to involve dragonriders and the first to mention what their identifying insignia are. (The Mastercraft badges for the Harpers only appeared in Dragondrums, so I suppose I should be happy they're here at all.) We are clearly flying aboard a planet-sized version [the USS Make Sh*t Up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03E68F6599Q). 

Anyway, the two masters are shown the drawings in place --

> \--Brekke's original drawing and the alterations suggested by Sharra. The brown rider retrieved the sheets and showed them to the Craftmasters. "Now, here, Fandarel, Bendarek, this is our idea..."  
>  Acting as one, the two men lifted the sheets from F'nor's hands and scrutinized first one then the other. Both shook their heads slowly from side to side in disapproval.  
>  "Not very efficient, F'nor, but well meant," the huge Smith said.  
>  [...the circus in tow is described...]  
>  "First we must correct this design, Master Bendarek..."  
>  "I quite agree. This is a nice enough little cot but not at all suitable accommodation for the Masterharper of Pern."

Okay, you know what? There's really one thing that has to be said here about this sequence:

Now, possibly minor points to the Brown Rider Rapist for saying "our design" and not trying to take all the credit for something he contributed nothing to, and I'm willing to grant, based on what we've seen of Pern to this point, that one of the men would have to present for the idea to have more than a snowball's chance in the Inferno, but everything else about this is _fucking stupid_.

I note again that the designs that are so apparently inadequate come from Brekke and Sharra, who are both women and both have spent significant time at Southern, but this apparently means nothing in the face of all these men who insist they know better how to build somewhere they've never been. It's not "efficient" and needs correcting. Sorry, women, but you're always going to be wrong, no matter what, if a man says you are.

Secondly, Robinton is recovering from a heart attack, and presumably is getting older in years. Why _wouldn't_ he want a small cottage that he can move around in easily and that has short distances between rooms instead of a palace that he will likely use less of each year? The Mastercraftsmen are clearly thinking too much of their own egos to think about what might actually work.

And after Jaxom and Piemur sneak away their respective drawings from prying eyes, Sharra lays into the Mastercraftsmen about the same topics she did yesterday when sketching out the new plans. Points for fearlessness, Sharra, not that they'll listen to you until they come up with the same idea.

The Brown Rider Rapist provides his assessment of the situation:

> F'nor made a clicking noise against his teeth. "She sounds like Brekke. And if she acts at all like my weyrmate when she's in that sort of mood, I'd rather be elsewhere. **You** ," F'nor poked Jaxom in the chest, "can show us where to hunt. Food was brought along but since you're the resident Lord Holder, it's up to you to play host with some roasting meat..."

Okay, so how are we supposed to reconcile this affectation of being henpecked with the earlier supposed admiration of Sharra's take-charge female demeanor? Unless, that is, the narrative is lying that the Brown Rider Rapist was more admiring than sarcastic. Patronizing was probably the right word to apply there, and then everything falls into place appropriately and consistently.

Also, what the fuck, springing the obligation of meat and host duties on Jaxom, who is still recovering? Apparently, we're supposed to remember the scene with Fax and the dragonriders all the way back in Dragonflight as the template to use for hospitality on Pern, even though Lessa was deliberately sabotaging that one to fail. All the other ones we've seen to this point have had allies feasting together or otherwise failed to mention any details about hospitality requirements (other than things like "don't knife another dragonrider in public"). If that was going to be the expectation for Jaxom, he needed advance notice to pull this together.

Especially since apparently just about every Craft, Hold, and Weyr sent representatives to this party. The narrative mentions Jaxom feels like his privacy has been violated. Jaxom's right. Even if the narrative is spinning it as "he wants to get back to trying to get into Sharra's pants with nobody around", Jaxom had every right to feel like he's been intruded upon - he has.

Hunting goes well (the weapon of choice is a weighted noose that allows for the swift breaking of necks after a dragon accelerates upward), although Jaxom is not actually strong enough to pull the dead carcass on his own (it feels like his arms almost get pulled from their sockets), so Ruth helps transport the kill back to the construction site. Which is already in full swing, with a large clearing made by dragons pulling out trees by the roots (which does not, apparently, disturb the sand and ground around them in any meaningful or dangerous way, despite the big, solid, very old trees being moved) and people hard at work. The Brown Rider Rapist asks Jaxom to focus exploration on moving toward the big volcano, and, to close out the chapter, Jaxom remarks that there aren't any wild fire-lizards around the site.

The loud, dragon-filled, people-filled, otherwise completely foreign construction site, that is, which would probably set off lots of "steer clear" alarms from the normally-skittish wild fire lizards. But it's apparently weird that the wild ones aren't here.


	18. Bigger, Louder Profanity

In the last chapter, everything went wrong for Jaxom that could, at least in his opinion. His quest to make Sharra believe she's in love with him was put on hold, and then completely delayed by the construction requirements of a new Hold for Robinton. I had a lot to say about the content of the last chapter, which didn't make a whole lot of on worldbuilding issues and was rather creepy in others.

**The White Dragon: Chapter XVII: Content Notes: Institutionalized sexism, ageism, ableism**

(15.10.1-15.10.2)

The chapter opens with a meeting between Lord Groghe of Fort Hold, N'ton of Fort Weyr, and Sebell, currently Craftmaster of the Harpers (which is different than Masterharper of Pern?), representing the Harpers during Robinton's recovery. The topic of discussion is all of these Holder sons that still have nowhere to go to Hold their own lands and are continuing to fight among themselves for the right of inheritance. Since Pern lacks an organized religion to send them into and the North decided not to engage in a protracted military campaign against the dragonriders of the south, there's no ready outlet to bleed off all of the excess men into something that keeps them out of the way. Groghe believes there will be a land rush southward once D'ram takes over at Southern, with plenty believing they can do as Menolly did and live without a Hold or dragons flying overhead. Sebell points out it's not for the faint of courage, to which Groghe replies that such a thing would be a feature, not a bug.

The whole thing is a ruse to get the Lord Holders to ask permission to invade the South. More specifically, Robinton sent Sebell around to see how good relations were between Holds and Weyrs and to instill the requirement of asking permission from Benden before heading south, having manipulated everyone else to put them in this position so that the Weyrs would have first strike at land before any Holders arrived. This plan and attitude is laid out in front of the Benden Weyrleaders by Sebell (with N'ton in attendance), along with the new maps of the South made by Jaxom and Piemur. The suggestion is that the western part could be opened up to the Holders and the eastern part reserved for the dragonriders.

Before we get anything more of that meeting, though, we cut back to the cove, where the work party has gone home for the night. The lack of people gets Piemur to reappear, and the three residents of the area all share a commiseration that there were far too many people around. (They also apparently ate just about all the food stores.) Piemur is a bit worried about what people will do to the unspoiled natural beauty of the south, resigning himself to the knowledge of having been there first, before an oddity of the heavens distracts him.

> "The so-called Dawn Sisters. You can only see them dusk and dawn down here and much higher in the sky. See, those three very bright points! Many's the time I've used them as guides!"  
>  [...What about 'em, Piemur?...]  
>  "They just don't act like proper stars. Didn't you ever notice?"  
>  "No. But we've been in most evenings and certainly every dawn."  
>  Piemur pointed with several stabs of his right arm at the Dawn Sisters. "Most stars change positions. They never do."  
>  "Sure they do. In Ruatha they're almost invisible on the horizon..."  
>  Piemur was shaking his head. "They're constant. That's what I mean. Every season I've been here, they're always in the same place."  
>  "Can't be! It's impossible. Wansor says that stars have routes in the sky just like--"  
>  "They stay still! They're always in the same position."  
>  "And I tell you that's impossible."  
>  "What's impossible? And don't snarl at each other," Sharra said, returning with a tray piled high with food and a wineskin slung over her shoulder. Giving Piemur the food, she filled cups all around.  
>  Piemur guffawed as he reached for a buck rib. "Well, I'm going to send a message to Wansor. **I** say it's bloody peculiar behavior for stars!"

Bloody appears again, and I guess I'm just supposed to accept it as a tic of the Ancients…

Why Sharra raiding the meat pits and then pouring the glasses? Because the men were talking big things with each other? If Sharra is cut from Brekke's cloth, then one of those two young men would likely have been dragged along to help. Or maybe that's Mirrim, since new-Brekke is supposedly devoted to her man. It's just incongruous that the person who had no trouble telling the Craftmasters off about their bad designs silently slips out, gathers food, and then does table service without a remark. Characterization is apparently also fluid as needed, regardless of the character being bent to serve it.

While the three at the cove eat, we cut away to Robinton, on the deck of Masterfisher Idarolan's ship, the _Dawn Sister_. Robinton is content to recover and itching to get back into the business of being the Masterharper, despite Sebell being trained to be his eventual replacement. The name of the ship triggers Robinton to resolve to ask Idarolan for his far-viewer (tele-scope) to check out the Dawn Sisters, as they're in the wrong position based on what he's used to. He also resolves to send a message to Wansor asking about this peculiar behavior. Just in case anyone believes that one of Robinton's subordinates can come up with an idea that Robinton hasn't, and therefore Robinton might not be the cleverest man on the planet.

Menolly is on board with him, receiving and delivering regular reports about the Harpers. Her presence is felt by his fire lizard before she steps into frame behind him. His grumpiness is soothed with some juice mixed with wine, and then the Feels come out.

> "You sound better."  
>  "Sound better? I'm as peevish as an old uncle! You must be heartily tired of my sulks by now!"

Well, that casts an entirely new light on the nickname that Old Uncle has back in Half-Circle. If being an old uncle is a detriment, then I really wonder what it must be like for him to have a nickname that basically says "Pain in the Ass" - which is Exponentially Wrong because he's also an amputee, so way to mock both the disabled and the old. I'm sure it's supposed to be endearing, but it's not.

> "Menolly, I'm fine. I'll be up and about any day now, Brekke says." The Harper permitted himself to stroke her hair. "Don't cry. Not now!"  
>  "Silly of me, I know. Because you're getting well, and we'll see to it that you never strain yourself again..." Menolly wiped her eyes impatiently with the back of her hand and sniffled.  
>  It was an endearingly childlike action. Her face, now blotchy from crying, was suddenly so vulnerable that Robinton felt his heart give a startling thump. He smiled tenderly at her, stroked tendrils of her hair back from her face. Tilting her chin up, he kissed her cheek. He felt her hand tighten convulsively on his arm, felt her lean into his kiss with an appeal that set both fire-lizards humming.  
>  Perhaps it was that response from their friends, or the fact that he was so startled it caused him to stiffen, but Menolly swiveled away from him.  
>  "I'm sorry," she said, her head bent, her shoulders sagging.  
>  "So, my dear Menolly, am I," the Harper said as gently as he could. In that instant, he regretted his age, her youth, how much he loved her-the fact that he never could-and the weakness that caused him to admit so much. She turned back to him, her eyes intense with her emotion.  
>  He held up his hand, saw the quick pain in her eyes, as the merest shake of his fingers forestalled all she wanted to say. He sighed, closing his eyes against the pain in her loving eyes. Abruptly he was exhausted by an exchange of understanding that had taken so few moments. As few as at Impression, he thought, and as lasting. He supposed he had always known the dangerous ambivalence of his feelings for the young SeaHold-bred girl whose rare talent he had developed. Ironic that he should be weak enough to admit it, to himself and to her, at such an awkward moment. Obtuse of him not to have recognized the intensity and quality of Menolly's feelings for him. Yet, she'd seemed content enough with Sebell. Certainly they enjoyed a deep emotional and physical attachment. Robinton had done everything in his subtle power to insure that. Sebell was the son he never had. Better that!  
>  "Sebell..." he began, and stopped when he felt her fingers tentatively closing over his.  
>  "I loved you first, Master."  
>  "You've been a dear child to me," he said, willing himself to believe that.

I'm honestly not sure what deserves the stink eye most - the dismissal of a May-December romance (Menolly should be comfortably above the age of squick at this point), Robinton admitting that he's been manipulating Sebell and Menolly into a relationship (so that bit where both of them were alone on a boat when a fire-lizard goes into heat is now suspicious instead of coincidental), or the way Robinton crushes Menolly's affection and love for him and buries his own feelings. As a romance trope, doing so rarely ends well for anyone involved. Although, points for it being Robinton invoking [I Want My Beloved To Be Happy](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy) instead of Menolly. The stated reason, though, seems weak, especially for a manipulator like Robinton, and it seems almost impossible for him not to have noticed Menolly's feelings for him, given that he's been trying hard to steer her in Sebell's direction. It seems like a moment of drama without purpose, unless your narrative's purpose is to hurt strong women wherever possible, and then it fits nicely with the narrative's insistence since Dragonsong that Menolly is not allowed to be happy in interpersonal relationships. (Except maybe Sebell, for now)

_[There's a certain amount of snickering the further-on me can do about this idea as well, given how much "age-gap" ships have been taking shit from people who think of them solely as inappropriate, wrong, and never-ever to be written about, drawn, or discussed in any way that isn't strident dismissal and disgust. However, when we come back around to this idea in the Todd books, there will be significantly less snickering, because in those cases, it's less about the age difference between the participants and more that one of the most desired people is categorically underage and remains that way for a significant amount of the time that she's being seen as an object of sex. Or that people are making jokes about her upcoming loss of virginity. But there's plenty of characters to use when talking about that in relation to Fiona, when we get there.]_

The chapter closes out with the appearance of Idarolan, who agrees to loan Robinton his distance-viewer and says that he's already sent word back to Wansor about the oddness of the Dawn Sisters in the Southern sky. So, apparently, everyone is clever and Wansor is going to have to pen a few standard replies for everyone. The chapter fully ends with Robinton asking Menolly to help him finish the (unspecified) board game Robinton and (Idarolan? Menolly?) started this morning. As if nothing had just happened at all.


	19. Appreciation For All That Has Been Done (...And The Conspicuous Lack Thereof)

Last chapter, the solution to the excess Holder population arrived - go South. With everyone looking to Benden for the go-ahead, there's a full-scale scramble in the wings for the upcoming land rush.

Menolly confessed her feelings for Robinton in a cheek kiss, and Robinton rebuffed her, despite feeling an attraction to her.

And everyone wants Wansor to look at three stars in the sky that don't behave like stars.

**The White Dragon, Chapter XVIII: Content Notes: Sexism, creepy stalkerism, "entitlement" to women and ownership of them**

(15.10.14, the day Robinton arrives at the new Cove Hold)

Cove Hold is complete in eleven days, we're told, although the stonemasons are worried about the structural integrity of the "hardset" used. Mental note: Pernese technology now includes either concrete or cement, or some form of stone mortar. Which is doable, assuming Pern has the correct mineral content, like lime or gypsum, to use to make the mortar, but one wonders how well it survives contact with Thread at high velocity. Also, this is the sixth book in the series, and just now we're getting to see a rather fundamental part of the society - how do the buildings not fall down?

For the three days after exterior construction finishes, Lessa, Manora, Silvina, and Sharra do the interior decoration, juggling all the gifts received into an effective ("not efficient, Sharra told Jaxom with a wicked grin, but effective") floor plan. 

Not to be a stick in the mud, but that crack about efficiency says that at least Fandarel was involved in trying to generate the floor plan. He may have lost in the face of spirited opposition, but he was involved. Instead, the narrative wants us to believe that the women did all the work in the domestic sphere, while the men did the hard work of construction and clearing the land. Hello, sexism. Are we also to assume that Fandarel and company entirely ignored Sharra from two chapters ago and built the Hold to Northern specifications, because silly girls can't do architecture?

Jaxom's frustration at not being able to pursue Sharra is clearly building, and leaking into the narrative:

> Piemur rather arrogantly told F'lar that dragons had to **be** a place first to get there again **between** -or else get a sharp enough visualization from someone who had. But he, with his two feet and Stupid's four, had to be first so mere dragonriders could then follow. The dragonriders ignored the somewhat disparaging remarks, but Piemur's attitude was beginning to get on Jaxom's nerves.

Piemur may have the tact of Space Durian in his delivery, but he's essentially _right_. Dragons need very clear pictures to do their hyperspace hop, which requires someone else to have been there or recorded the image somehow for the dragon to use later. And since the South has effectively been a no-fly zone while T'ron, Mardra, and T'kul have been in charge, that means mapping it all out on foot. With the associated bumps, bruises, scratches, and near-death experiences that entails. The high-and-mighty dragonriders ignore this truth, as it is inconvenient to their self-image, but it remains a truth all the same. So I'm not convinced it's Piemur talking about his exploits that has Jaxom frazzled, but Piemur's presence as a potential romantic rival for Sharra. After Sharra shows that she's fine with methods other than foot travel, refusing to buy into Piemur's grandstanding, Piemur backs off and things return to the largely one-sided Cold War between Jaxom and Piemur.

The next major event is the arrival of Robinton at the Cove Hold. Oldive sent word ahead forbidding a great feast and party on account of Robinton's heart, so the welcoming party is small - Jaxom to represent the Holders, Lessa the dragonriders, and Fandarel the Crafts.

To keep up appearances of a healthy old man, when coming into dock, Robinton is standing at the front of the ship, waving to everyone. At least, I assume that it's to keep up appearances, and that there was a fantastic fight between Robinton, Menolly, and Oldive about whether he should. Robinton has tanned significantly in his travels ("Look, he's almost black with sun," Lessa cried, clutching Jaxom's arm in her excitement.), which makes me wonder how much sun protection was thought of on that ship, and how much sunburn Robinton suffered through before it mellowed out into his tan. And whether that kind of sun-roasting would have been good for his health and his heart.

Neither Robinton nor Brekke were informed of the changes made from the original design, so Lessa has to course-correct Brekke when she heads toward the original site, and Robinton is hesitant about the size of his new dwelling until he's strongarmed (literally) inside and gets to see the place, including everything that was in his office at the Harper Hall. Welcome to your retirement, Masterharper. We hope you like it.

Ever-observant, Robinton notices Farli among the fire-lizards that have stopped by to say hello, and:

> "We didn't want too many people about, tiring you..." Lessa added in a soothing tone.  
>  "Tiring me? Tiring me! I need a little tiring! PIEMUR!" If his tanned and relaxed face had not been proof enough of his return to health, the bellow he let loose, as vigorous and deafening as ever, left no further doubts of his vitality.  
>  Clearly audible was the distant startled reply: **"Master?"**  
>  "REPORT, PIEMUR!"

Which brings Piemur into the room at high velocity, worried something dire is happening, only to find that the newest cup in Robinton's collection had no wine in it and himself sent to get some. After returning and getting distressed at by Robinton for his handling of the wineskin, Robinton gets a glass. After everyone toasts his health, Robinton is pulled along on the rest of the tour, including a custom-built chair for him (also, if your mental picture of Robinton is that he's short, we're told he has long legs and long torso here. Still no idea whether that means he's taller or shorter than Menolly.) and a codex of all the Traditional songs and ballads. There's exploration and swimming and dinner guests, including the crew of Idarolan's ship and all the others assembled.

After dinner, the new plot for the Harpers and Jaxom is to move inland, while the dragonriders supervise the land rush. An offhand remark from Menolly about trying to get more information about the possible viewing of the past in dreams (Jaxom realizes his fever dreams might have been a collective visualization of many beings, which is why they were hazy) reminds us that the plot has now been stalled for several chapters while everyone is healing or getting into proper position, and the ensuing discussion sets Piemur off again:

> "That's a nice concept," Menolly said. "A dream eye unfocused."  
>  Piemur groaned and flailed at the sand with his fists. "Here comes another song!"  
>  "Oh, do be quiet!" Menolly regarded him with impatience. "All that lone traveling has changed you, Piemur, and I for one don't like the change."  
>  "No one says you have to," Piemur snapped at her and, with a fluid motion, was on his feet and striding into the first, angrily batting the underbrush out of his way.  
>  "How long has he been so touchy?" Menolly asked Jaxom and Sharra.  
>  "Since he arrived here," Jaxom said, shrugging to indicate that they hadn't been able to change him.

And yet, nobody has apparently asked Piemur what is happening that he has changed so much. Something is clearly affecting his mood, but nothing on-camera is being done to ascertain what. Piemur seems to be feeling unappreciated for his work (repeatedly mentioning how sick he is of walking), his adventures, and his exploration, instead having his surveying transformed into land for unappreciative Holder brats and Inherently Superior dragonriders without so much as a "Thanks, Piemur, we couldn't have done this without your hard work of the past three Turns." Plus, all of these intruders are likely to carve up the relatively unspoiled tropical paradise that is Southern and make it into something else. If Piemur appreciates nature the way that it is, the incoming development might end up pushing him in the direction of "I am the Harper and I speak for the trees." (And the wild fire-lizards, plants, beasts, wherries, and other such things.)

Menolly doesn't know what's going on or how severe it is, so she can't be engaged as the Designated Empathy character here. Which would leave Jaxom, except Jaxom has been far too busy thinking with his penis and continues to see Piemur as a rival for the control of Sharra instead of the friend he had before going south.

> Then he looked off in the direction Sharra had gone. Had he any legitimate reason for following her? He sighed. He liked Piemur, despite his acid tongue. He'd been glad to see the young Harper, grateful for his company and assistance. He just wished that Piemur had taken a day longer, even half a day longer, to reach the Cove. Since his arrival, Jaxom had had no time at all alone with Sharra. Was she avoiding him? Or was it just the circumstances of the building and getting Cove Hold ready for Master Robinson? He must figure out some way to separate Sharra from the others! Or else visit Corana!

I get that Jaxom is supposed to be a horny teenager in a society where is position basically gives him control over people, directly or indirectly, but it's still fucking creepy, man. And totally stalker territory, for which our last result was the rape of Brekke. There are enough uncomfortable parallels that I'd almost suggest that the plot thread is being recycled from Dragonquest, with new names and taking longer to arrive at the payoff point. The longer we go in this book, the more convinced I am that Jaxom is going to take Sharra down the same path.

I still hope I'm wrong. However, Jaxom admitting he would go see Corana puts the lie to the idea that his intentions are romantic. And Corana is being specifically thought of as an object to be used for Jaxom's lusts, like she always has been, instead of as a woman with her own life and possible issues that are made more complex when someone who she can't refuse comes in for a booty call. The narrative is only concerned with Jaxom and whether he's getting his rocks off, instead of what any of his potential partners thinks about the affair.

Which is, unfortunately, one of the most consistent parts of Holder culture and the narrative.


	20. Welcome to the New Age

Last chapter, the retirement Hold built for Master Robinton received its intended occupant, with everyone dancing around this reality. Piemur got grumpy at everyone that no-one was recognizing his efforts that made everything possible, and Jaxom continued to scheme of ways to get Sharra alone so he could try to seduce her.

**The White Dragon, Chapter XIX, Part One: Content Notes: Sentient experimentation, paternalism**

(15.10.15-15.10.16)

The chapter starts with the Masterharper calling in Jaxom and Piemur to talk about the Dawn Sisters. (The two are a bit slow-moving from their apparently late night.) Wansor will be by eventually with a bigger telescope to examine things further, and Brekke is there to indicate that the rollout of the Holder sons plan has hit snags (as well as to remind us of the unofficial rule in place that says Robinton is not to be overtaxed, no matter what he thinks). The main gist of the meeting, however, is to say that once Jaxom is certified to fly, he, Piemur, Menolly, and Sharra are going to go looking for more evidence of the ancients on the Southern Continent to see if they can piece together why the Ancients left.

> "Harper and Holder?" Jaxom asked, seizing the opportunity he'd been waiting for.  
>  "Harper and Holder? Oh, yes, of course. Piemur, you and Menolly have worked well together, I know. So Sharra can go with Jaxom. Now..." Oblivious to the sharp look Piemur gave Jaxom, the man went on. "One sees things from the air in a perspective not always possible at ground level. The reverse, of course, applies. So any exploration should involve both methods. Jaxom, Piemur knows what I'm looking for..."  
>  "Sir?"  
>  "Traces of the original habitation of this continent. I can't for the life of me imagine why our long-dead ancestors left this fruitful and beautiful continent for the colder, duller North, but I assume they had good reasons."

Robinton explains that while old Records talk about the need to move North, there aren't enough surviving ones to figure out why. The discovery of an iron mine by Toric and mine shafts by N'ton and Robinton confirms that there was a civilization here, and they had some impressive power at their disposal, to keep those mines stable, even as other attempts, like D'ram's shelter in the past, have long since succumbed to the ravages of time.

The scope of the operation is massive, considering the size of the continent, but the potential reward is great, or so Robinton says to them. After laying out the parameters of the initial search grids, Robinton has a final comment.

> "However, I want to impress on you both that though this is a joint effort, Piemur is far more experienced, Jaxom, and you will please bear this in mind when problems occur. And send me your reports for this..." he tapped the chart, "every evening! Off with you both, now, and organize your equipment and supplies. And your partners!"

Which, I am sure, infuriates Jaxom some and makes him less likely to defer to Piemur.

The party doesn't leave that day, as Oldive arrives and looks over both hold and Harper, not buying into Robinton's attempt at gallows humor, and recommending light duty for the Harper and unobtrusive help from the younger people around. Jaxom is given a clean bill of health, and then Wansor arrives with a full-on proper telescope, instead of the spyglasses that have been in use to this point. The Starsmith has progressed greatly in his knowledge of optics based on reverse-engineering the microscope, to the point where the eyepiece placement is offset, muttering "something about reflective and refracting, ocular and objective and that this was the arrangement he thought best for the purposes of viewing distant objects." Hats off to the Starsmith and the glass grinders (wherever they get their glass from) who can create such lenses and calculate the optics. I think we're well past the point of fantasy kingdom at this point, and have firmly moved into the latter part of the time of the Italian city-states. 

As we wait for sundown, we're told that Wansor finally decided to come down and look when Robinton said things were odd with the Dawn Sisters, discounting everyone else, including Idarolan, who as a sea navigator, probably knows more about the heavenly bodies than anyone else. Fandarel has frames for setting the telescopes on, although he apparently has to physically move Wansor to get him out of the way of their construction, and this is treated as friendly and genial.

Finally, sundown arrives and Wansor steps up to the eyepiece...and refuses to believe his eyes. Fandarel takes a look:

> "I see three round objects!" Fandarel announced in a booming voice. "Round metallic objects. Manmade objects. Those are not stars, Wansor," he said, looking at the distressed Starsmith, "those are things!"  
>  Robinton, almost shoving the Smith's bulk to one side, bent his eye to the viewer, gasping.  
>  "They are round. They do shine. As metal does. Not as stars do."  
>  "One thing sure," Piemur said irreverently in the awed silence, "you have found traces of our ancestors in the South, Master Robinton."  
>  "Your observation is eminently correct," the Harper said in such a curiously muffled tone Jaxom want certain if the man was suppressing laughter or anger, "but not at all what I had in mind and you know it!"

That's right, they have discovered geostationary satellites. (Of scientific interest, Pernese moons are not tide-locked, according to observations.) The discovery is confirmed by everyone there, then the Benden Weyrleaders and the Brown Rider Rapist are summoned to see the same things. Wansor is trying to do the math on something, reaches his result, and then asks both Fandarel and N'ton to recheck the math. Which again confirms that the objects in the heavens are geostationary, and it is Piemur who suggests those are possibly the craft by which the ancestors came to Pern. Which is an interesting conjecture - if it's true, then whatever disaster befell the Ancients did so very early on, where they weren't able to finish bringing down all the colony ships to cannibalize their parts to build the new homes with. It seems more likely that they're part of a communication array of some sort.

Robinton wants to find out what they are. The Brown Rider Rapist is game, but his enthusiasm is met with a stronger veto from Brekke, who has no intention of going through the heartbreak she suffered when he jetted off to the Red Star again. So Robinton asks his fire lizard to go to the Dawn Sisters and tell us what it is. Which really comes across as callous and cruel, considering the only extraplanetary affair so far has been the visit to the Red Star that nearly claimed the lives of the Brown Rider Rapist and Canth. But Robinton appears to have no qualms about sending the fire-lizard he's empathically bonded to into a potentially hazardous and deadly environment to satisfy his curiosity. Now that I think about it, that sort of sums up Robinton, doesn't it?

As it turns out, Zair is a blank when it comes to going there. There's no disappearance or even indication that Zair knows what he's talking about, which suggests that the memory of the fire-lizards has no recollection of the ships above.

Then comes two really smart decisions. The first is that Oldive puts a sedative in Robinton's wine so that he falls asleep instead of trying to stay up late, and the other:

> It had been tactfully decided not to broadcast the true nature of the Dawn Sisters, at least until such time as Wansor and other interested star-crafters had had a chance to study the phenomenon and reach some conclusion that would not alarm people. There'd been enough shocks of late, F'lar commented. Some might construe those harmless objects to be a danger, much as the Red Star was.  
>  "Danger?" Fandarel had exclaimed. "Were there any danger from those things, we should have known it many Turns past."  
>  To that, F'lar agreed readily enough but, with everyone conditioned to believe that disaster fell from sky-borne things, it was better to be discreet.

Not that they could know it, but Fandarel is entirely wrong - the destabilization of any of those craft could result in an extinction-level event, and they really wouldn't know unless someone noticed the orbit decaying of those craft. The time-jumping dragonriders could then engineer a Lessa-class Stable Time Loop where, soon after leaving for the past, the solution party reappears with the answer in hand or already built, so no real danger, but only potential. In any case, the decision to not broadcast the real nature of the Dawn Sisters is a good one to avoid unnecessary panic. Not so great for the advancement of science (SCIENCE!), but it certainly seems like all of those things and discoveries are being treated as Craft secrets anyway.

As Jaxom heads to bed, he resumes thinking with his penis, despite the monumental discovery.

> As Jaxom pushed his legs into his sleeping blanket, he tried not to be annoyed with the thought of another invasion in Cove Hold, just when he thought he and Sharra would be left alone for a while.  
>  Had she been avoiding him? Or was it simply that circumstances had intervened? Such as Piemur's premature arrival in Cove Hold? The worry over Master Robinton, the need to explore which left them too tired to do more than crawl into their furs, the arrival of half of Pern to complete the Hold for the Harper, and now this! No, Sharra had not been avoiding him. She seemed... **there**. Her beautiful rich laugh, a tone below Menolly's, her face often hidden by the strands of dark hair which kept escaping thong and clip...

You're still being creepy, Jaxom. But rather than let your conscience intrude and point this out, Jaxom sticks with it and passes through "Nobody needs me at Ruatha", "other dragonriders will have bigger and stronger flyers than Ruth, so they will explore more in any day (and might steal Sharra away from me)", and parks his jealousy and inadequacy train at "So I'm going to go to the volcano first so I have something to brag about and feel superior to everyone about." Before he can act on that idea, though, he falls asleep and dreams again of the volcano erupting. This time, though, he can pay enough attention to realize that he might be reliving a vision of the other side of the mountain, which would also lead to proof of where the Ancients were. It's a can't-miss plan and it gives Jaxom all the glory he could ever want. All he needs is to borrow Idarolan's spyglass and...

> He pivoted on his heel and lurched backward in surprise. Piemur, Sharra, and Menolly were standing in a row, watching him.  
>  "Do tell, Lord Jaxom, what you saw in the Seaman's viewer? A mountain, perhaps?" Piemur asked, showing all his teeth in that smug grin.  
>  On Menolly's shoulder, Beauty chirped.  
>  "Did he see enough?" Menolly asked Piemur, ignoring Jaxom.  
>  "I'd say he had!"  
>  "He wouldn't have planned to go without us, would he?" Sharra asked.  
>  They regarded him with mocking expressions.  
>  "Ruth can't carry four."  
>  **None of you are fat. I could manage,** Ruth said.  
>  Sharra laughed, covered her mouth to silence the sound and pointed an accusing finger at him.  
>  "I'll bet anything Ruth just said he could!" she told the other two.  
>  "I'll bet you're right." Menolly didn't take her eyes from Jaxom's face. "I think it really is best of you have some help on this venture." She drawled the last two words significantly.  
>  "This venture?" Piemur echoed the words, alert as ever to nuances of speech.  
>  Jaxom clenched his teeth, glaring at her. "You're sure you could carry four?" he asked Ruth.  
>  The dragon emerged on the beach, his eyes glowing with excitement.  
>  **I have had to fly straight for many days now. That has made me very strong. None of you are heavy. The distance is not great. We are going to see the mountain?**  
>  "Ruth is obviously willing," Menolly said, "but if we don't make a move soon..." She gestured toward Cove Hold. "C'mon, Sharra, we'll get the flying gear."  
>  "I'll have to rig flying straps for four."  
>  "Then do it." Menolly and Sharra raced off down the sand.

And at this point, I kind of feel bad for Jaxom. He's always been seen as someone who's messing things up. His birth derailed Lessa's plan to take over at Ruatha. Lessa may be happier where she is now, in terms of being able to wield real power, but Jaxom had an inauspicious birth. Then he had a dour ex-dragonrider as his warder growing up, and then he screwed things up royally by Impressing Ruth, crossing the streams in ways that made him unpalatable to the Holders and too precious to risk for the dragonriders. Not to mention that Ruth is both a runt, by dragon standards, might be thought of as developmentally delayed, and is apparently ace, which makes him even weirder among the dragons. Since then, both Jaxom and Ruth have basically been under everyone's watchful eyes. Even when he was sneaking off to see Corana, there was a wink and a nod. The only thing he's pulled off was the egg return, and even then, there are suspicions among the Harpers that he was responsible. And Piemur is rubbing it in his face, at least in his perception, about what a great explorer he is, Menolly is, and everyone else's accomplishments, while he has been sidelined with injury and sickness. So Jaxom gets an opportunity to steal a march on everybody and publicly claim something as his and Ruth's accomplishment, he's confronted with the very people that he wanted to have something to be on par with, and they've known about it all along. For Jaxom, life sucks.

While he gets no cookies at all in how he's treated women through this whole book, (I suspect, had such a term existed when the book was written, Jaxom would be complaining right now about having been "friendzoned" by Sharra this whole time) with the exception of the egg heist, Jaxom has been the Butt Monkey of this book, despite being its ostensible protagonist. So there is the possibility of empathy here with Jaxom as an underdog.

Unfortunately, when you're psychically linked with a dragon that all the fire-lizards adore, you're probably going to have your secret plans broadcast to others. Ruth probably just thought it would be fun to have friends along on an adventure, without any thought about why Jaxom might want to do something alone.

Ruth can carry the four, and in his exuberance, pops them through hyperspace to the destination. Which is breathtaking, and we learn that the volcano dream was a shared dream, which is what tipped everyone else off to the plan that Jaxom hatched. There's a lot of scenery porn as we get to see the continent from dragon perspective, on both sides of the mountain. And then, they get to observe the side of the volcano they have been seeing in their dreams, and there are obvious signs of human settlement, presumably in the path of and/or partially buried by the flow of lava or mud from the eruption, but the narrative isn't clear on this at this point.

The explorer crew's aerial survey is cut short by noticing Thread on the horizon, which sends everyone back to base on a hyperspace hop. Everyone else at base is apparently annoyed with their trip. Let's recap, however, who was on that trip:

  * A trained dragonrider, who has flown Threadfall with the Queen Wing and can hold their own in a fight
  * The legendary girl who survived Holdless and Impressed ten fire lizards
  * The Harper who, for the last few years, been exploring the Southern Continent without the protection of a Hold
  * Someone who has been living in the South for years



So I don't really think there's any reason for anyone to be annoyed with them for being out during a possible Threadfall. Idarolan is pissed, but that's probably because they took his spyglass without asking, and what if they broke the delicate expensive instrument, and so forth. We also get one side of a conversation between Ruth and Canth about how everyone on the morning's expedition was just doing what the Masterharper wanted before everyone buckles down to the task of fighting Thread. Afterward, the Brown Rider Rapist comes by, intending to rip Jaxom a new one for leaving without telling anyone and not being back with enough time to get prepared for the fall. In response, Jaxom gives him a verbal two-finger salute that shows maturity and diplomacy while making it absolutely clear how angry Jaxom is at being talked down to again:

> "We were ready for Thread when it fell, brown rider," he responded calmly. "My duty as the rider of a dragon was to protect Cove Hold. I did. My pleasure and privilege was to fly with Benden." He gave a slight bow and had the satisfaction of seeing the anger in F'nor's face give way to surprise. "I'm sure the others have by now reported to Master Robinton what we discovered this morning. Into the water with you, Ruth. I'll be glad to answer all your questions, F'nor, when I've cleaned Ruth up." He gave F'nor, who was staring at him in honest amazement, a second now and then stripped off hot and sweaty flying gear, leaving only the shortened trousers that were more suitable to the heat.  
>  F'nor was still staring at him when he ran and dove neatly into the water, coming up beside his wallowing white friend.

Jaxom has apparently stupefied the Brown Rider Rapist with this outburst, but by now, people should be ready to start thinking of Jaxom as an independent man instead of a child to be ordered around.

Sharra arrives to assist with the cleaning, bearing stiff-bristle brushes that Brekke brought. Menolly has apparently placated Robinton by giving him a full report and not letting him get a word in edgewise, a feat that impresses Sharra mightily. Brekke was fretting for Jaxom's health (even though Oldive had pronounced him fit the previous day), and we saw what happened with the Brown Rider Rapist.

The mission is a success, which is a good news, bad news situation. The bad news is that the discovery from this morning is going to bring everyone worth any kind of status immediately down to excavate, analyze, and otherwise attempt to solve the mystery. And they're all coming right now, right after the Threadfall and the cleaning routine. 

And we'll stop here, after Jaxom gets a quick meal, at the halfway point of the chapter. This particular chapter, by the way, is, at least on the electronic version in reading on, _three times as long_ as any other chapter in the book that I've read, and in most other books in the series as well.


	21. ...same as the old age.

Earlier in the chapter, the true nature of the Dawn Sisters became apparent with a powerful telescope, and Jaxom, accompanied by Menolly, Piemur, and Sharra, discovered what are likely to be the ruins of the first settlement on Pern, before having to fight off Thread and the anger of everyone else for just going off and exploring. The discovery has basically summoned everyone that is everyone to the South, and it's here that we pick up again...

**The White Dragon, Chapter XIX, Part Two: Content Notes: Misogyny**

(Still 15.10.16)

> In the hours that followed, Jaxom was grateful that Sharra had thought to feed him breakfast. He didn't get much time for more food. The moment he entered the main Hall, questions were thrown at him by the Weyrleaders and Craftmasters assembled. Piemur had been very busy during Fall because Master Robinton had already completed a sketch of the southeastern face of the mountain to show the incredulous visitors, and a rough, small-scale map of this section of Southern. From the almost rhythmic way Menolly described their jaunt, Jaxom decided she had already repeated the account many times.  
>  What Jaxom remembered most of that session was feeling sorry that the Masterharper was unable to see the mountain first hand. But, if Jaxom had waited until Master Oldive permitted the Harper to fly **between**...

...and the Benden Weyrleader is asking Jaxom to send him the coordinates so he can take a look with everybody else, a move N'ton squashes after laughing at "the look on your [Jaxom's] face", which isn't described, but presumably is either crestfallen or _utterly pissed off_ at the Benden Weyrleader wanting to steal his thunder so completely and transparently.

So Jaxom leads the others to the site of the ruins, where the Benden Weyrleader tries to dig through the ash and uncover the path...with his belt knife. T'bor (High Reaches Weyrleader, still) points out that erupting volcanoes tend to cover everything in their path in lots of ash before a sun-blotting grouping of fire-lizards arrives, exuberant that men have returned to them. After they all vanish when asked about the volcano and everyone with a fire lizard gets vivid imagery of the eruption, the Benden Weyrleader is still openly skeptical of the idea that fire lizards have a way of preserving memory from previous times.

Because it's not like he lives in a society that preserves memory, albeit imperfectly, in crafts, songs, and traditions, or anything like that.

> "Of course men were here. They're not telling us anything we didn't know. But for them to say they remembered?" F'lar was scornful. "I could accept your finding D'ram in the Cove with their aid...but that was only a matter of twenty-five Turns in the past. But..." For want of an appropriate expression of his skepticism, F'lar merely gestured at the dead volcanoes and the long-covered traces of a settlement.

I should probably mention that at least one of those depictions of memory was detailed enough to allow for a time jump, and it survived more than four hundred and fifty Turns so that it could be used for the purpose of that hop, along with a song that would provide the key for its use. There's skepticism, oh great thief of credit due others, and then there's what you're doing. None of this is mentioned, but a defense is mounted:

> "Two points, F'lar," Menolly said, boldly contradicting the Benden Weyrleader, "no fire-lizard in this time knew the Red Star, but they were, nonetheless, all afraid of it. They also..." Menolly paused, and Jaxom was certain she had been about to bring up the fire-lizard dreams about Ramoth's egg. He hastily interrupted.  
>  "Fire-lizards must be able to remember, F'lar. Ever since I've been in the Cove, I've been troubled with dreams. At first I thought it was leftover from fire-head fever. The other night I found out that Sharra and Piemur have had similar nightmares...about the mountain. This side of it, not the one facing the Cove."  
>  "Ruth always sleeps with fire-lizards at night, F'lar," Menolly said, pressing their case. "He could be relaying those dreams to Jaxom! And our fire-lizards to us!"  
>  F'lar nodded, as if granting them this possibility.

He never fully agrees with it, as Fandarel offers some sound advice on what to do next - dig. Lots. Much like the proverbial child in a candy shop, the Mastersmith has a lot of new problems to solve and knowledge to gain, and he'll borrow the best diggers from the Masterminer to excavate.

Jaxom takes his leave, and an afternoon nap, before Mirrim and Sharra wake him up to send him in to Robinton for a report. Jaxom is rude and cross with Mirrim, before trying to turn the charm on for Sharra.

> "You are my true friend, Sharra," Jaxom said. "Mirrim irritates me so! Menolly told me that once Path had flown, she'd improve. I haven't noticed any sign."

Sharra doesn't take the bait, and Jaxom is soon set to the task of trying to get information from the fire-lizards about where would be a good spot to focus the digging efforts. After Robinton deduces that Jaxom was the one that stole Ramoth's egg back from the south, that is, now that the whole picture is laid out before him of what fire-lizards can do.

Robinton also gets to articulate the main question that has been in our minds since we could piece together that the Ancients were highly technologically advanced and possibly a space-faring race:

> "...Surely people who could hold the Dawn Sisters in the sky in a stationary position for who knows how many Turns ought to be wise enough to identify an active volcano. My surmise is that the eruption was spontaneous, totally unexpected. The people were caught going about their daily tasks in cot, hold, crafthall. If you can get Ruth to focus those disparate views, perhaps we could identify which of the mounds were important from the numbers of people coming from it, or them."

Knowing Robinton's character design, he'll turn out to be right, but the question itself is important - why would a space-faring group be caught unawares by an active volcano? Unless there were no seismologists or computers and sensors to monitor the activity, at which point I'm surprised they didn't completely wipe out when Thread first arrived. If us Terrans have had the technology to monitor activity for decades at this point, it seems reasonable to believe so would any settlement in the blast zone of any volcano. So I'm going to guess that Robinton is correct, but that the Ancients brought it on themselves by doing something seismically dangerous.

Mirrim volunteers herself and Path to help with focusing the fire lizards after Menolly, Jaxom, and Sharra are set to start tomorrow. Now, we've already been set up earlier in this part, and in earlier books, to understand Mirrim as sharp-tongued and generally headstrong. With that in mind:

> "I can arrange to come, too," Mirrim said.  
>  Jaxom caught Sharra's closed expression and realized that Mirrim's presence would be as unwelcome to her as to himself.  
>  "I don't think that would work, Mirrim. Path would scare the Southern fire-lizards away!"  
>  "Oh, don't be ridiculous, Jaxom," Mirrim replied, brushing aside the argument.  
>  "He's right, Mirrim. Look out in the Cove right now. Not a single fire-lizard that isn't banded," Menolly said. "They all disappear the minute they see any other dragon but Ruth."  
>  "It's ridiculous. I have three of the best-trained fire-lizards in Pern..."  
>  "I must agree with Jaxom," the Harper said, smiling with sincere apology to the Benden dragongirl. "And, though I quite agree that yours are undoubtedly the best-trained fire-lizards in Pern, we don't have time for the Southern ones to get used to Path."  
>  "Path needn't be in evidence--"  
>  "Mirrim, the decision has been made," Robinton said firmly, with no trace of a smile now.  
>  "Well, that's plain enough. Since I'm not needed here..." She stalked out of the hall.

You know what? I'd love to see the book called Dragongirl...written by someone who doesn't have a deep and abiding hated for women who stand up for themselves and are assertive. Otherwise, the use of that term instead of "dragonrider" pretty well cements what the narrative, and most likely all the other riders, think of their first female fighting rider. Mirrim deserves more than a brush-off and a convenient excuse that pretty well indicates that she's not wanted. If Jaxom can read Sharra's body language, Mirrim probably can, too.

_[Regrettably, there is a book named Dragongirl, written by Todd, so we've struck out there.]_

And as extra topping on this shit sundae, Robinton reaches for the most convenient and sexist excuse possible.

> Jaxom noticed the Harper's gaze following her [Mirrim], and he felt acutely embarrassed by her display of temperament. He could see that Menolly was also disturbed.  
>  "Is her Path proddy today?" the Harper asked Menolly quietly.  
>  "I don't think so, Master Robinton."

So our options appear to be that Mirrim is either raggedy because her dragon is having a PMS-equivalent, or that Mirrim is just naturally bitchy. Way to go on the false choice there. *thbbbbpth*

After Mirrim is sent off, Brekke and the Brown Rider Rapist arrive, Brekke to chide Robinton for not taking his retirement easy, the Brown Rider Rapist to chide Mirrim (if he can find her) for bothering Robinton. Piemur calls for a swim, and the gang head to the water, Jaxom asking how Robinton knew, and Menolly pointing out that someone could follow the logic chain to Jaxom, and that more people will, now that the crisis of the South is finished and they don't need to believe in nonexistent goodwill. 

There is another joke at Mirrim's expense about her trying to stay on and see if the fire-lizards will react to Path.

> "And what do you bet Mirrim tries to stay there [with Wansor star-watching] the night, too, to see if Path does keep away the Southern fire-lizards?" Piemur asked, a slightly malicious grin on his face.  
>  "Mirrim does have well-trained fire-lizards," Menolly said.  
>  "And they sound just like her when they scold everyone else's friends," Piemur added.  
>  "Now that's not fair," Menolly said. "Mirrim's a good friend of mine..."  
>  "And as her best friend you ought to explain to her that she can't manage everyone on Pern!"  
>  As Menolly prepared to take umbrage, dragons began popping into the air over the Cove, and with their bugling no one could hear anything else.

Which is convenient, otherwise we might have to hear someone say something nice about Mirrim, instead of her perpetual Butt Monkey status. We also know that Brekke has been managing everyone since her appearance several books ago, but she apparently isn't the focus of negative attention any more. Perhaps because the Brown Rider Rapist's "claim" on her gives her protection so long as she doesn't step too far out of line.

The arrival of dragons and ships is for a big conference at Cove Hold about what to do with the ruins. The time-skipped are uninterested in the artifacts of the past, and the Masterminer's analysis suggests that the lava and the ash both avoided the main parts of the settlement and only damaged a small bit.

Heading back to the dragons, Jaxom gets to overhear Mirrim talk with N'ton about Ruth, which is also the narrative teeing up for us a reminder that we should not feel empathy for Mirrim.

> "Of course, Wansor's all right," Mirrim said, sounding peevish. "He's got his eyes glued to that tube of his. He never knew I came, never ate the food I brought, never knew I left. And further," she paused, taking a deep breath, "Path did not scare away the Southern fire-lizards."  
>  "Why would she?"  
>  " **I'm** not allowed to be on the Plateau when Jaxom and the others try to coax some sense out of the Southerners."  
>  "Sense? Oh, yes, seeing if Ruth can focus the fire-lizards images. Well, I shouldn't worry about it, Mirrim. There are so many other things you can do."

That sounds incredibly patronizing, and it probably is. Considering the context, N'ton and Mirrim are probably both thinking that those "other things" are delivering food, running supplies, and generally the things that women in the Weyr do, not the things that the real dragonriders do. So Mirrim is most likely understandably aggravated, in much the same way Jaxom was, about regularly being sent to the support squadrons. Even so, her rejoinder aims well below the belt.

> "At least my dragon is not an unsexed runt, good for nothing but consorting with fire-lizards!"  
>  "Mirrim!"  
>  Jaxom heard the coldness in N'ton's voice; it matched the sudden freezing in his guts. Mirrim's petulant comment resounded over and over in his ears.  
>  "You know what I mean, N'ton..."  
>  Just like Mirrim, Jaxom thought, not to heed the warning in N'ton's voice.  
>  "You ought to," she went on with the impetus of grievance. "Wasn't it you who told F'nor and Brekke that you doubted if Ruth would ever mate? Where are you going, N'ton? I thought you were going..."  
>  "You don't think, Mirrim!"  
>  "What's the matter, N'ton?" The sudden panic in her voice afforded Jaxom some consolation.  
>  [...N'ton reveals Jaxom within earshot...]  
>  "Jaxom?" Mirrim cried. "Oh no!" Then Jaxom heard her running away, saw the glow basket jolting, heard her weeping. Just like the girl, speak first, think later and weep for days. She'd be repentant and hanging on about him, driving him **between** with her need to be forgiven her thoughtlessness.

So, I'm very much not sure what to do with this. The brash and unapologetic Mirrim we've seen so far wouldn't crumble at her target overhearing her. At the same time, if the aggressiveness is a front and Mirrim uses it because she sees it as the only way to survive and be on an equal footing with the hypermasculine dragonriders, then the thought of having actually hurt someone might be enough to set her off. That Jaxom groans at this, making it sound like Mirrim does this tears-and-apology routine a lot, suggests that the second interpretation is more likely, which makes Mirrim continually victimized and hurt by the institutional anti-women sentiments embedded deeply in Pern and in the narrative. Once again, the narrative punishes women who get ideas, and it doesn't permit anyone else to speak positively on their behalf. (Which is interpretation three - Mirrim goes off to cry because men cannot be impugned without swift consequences on Pern.)

_[Mirrim really gets the short end of the stick wherever she appears, to the point where I have to wonder why her character was created, since all she seems to be able to be is disagreeable and aggravating to everyone around her. She's remarkable in that she's the first woman greenrider in a while, but she's been constructed so as to be thoroughly disagreeable and without redeeming features to basically everyone she comes across, and yet she still gets significant amount of screen time and interaction with everyone. She's useful in passing the Bechdel, certainly, but that particular test hasn't even been created by accident yet. But much like Menolly, Mirrim is there as a Smurfette, a fig leaf to wave and say that it's entirely possible for women to do these things that everyone thinks they can't, but without putting any depth into her characterization and without giving her any additional traits that might make her someone that people actually would want to hang around with. She's pure foil, regardless of who she's being put up against, and it makes her flat because all she ever is sharp and pointy to everyone else.]_

After Mirrim leaves, N'ton apologizes and Jaxom dismisses the whole thing - after all, Ruth doesn't understand and Jaxom's okay with having an ace dragon. Ruth, on the other hand, is itchy and his concern is what Jaxom can focus on. While retrieving oil for Ruth, Jaxom is annoyed at not ever being treated as a full dragonrider (a Thing that should generate empathy for Mirrim, not scorn), and on his return, he finds that Mirrim has been sent back to Benden and Sharra is itching Ruth.

And to close out this triple-length chapter, it turns out that Jaxom's penis sense is correct. Sort of. Ruth called Sharra over to get Jaxom to open his mind up again, which Ruth apparently has determined means sex. Sharra is apparently up for opening Jaxom's mind.

Jaxom asks "Will you do that for us, Sharra?" and her reply is "I would do anything for you, Jaxom, anything for you and Ruth!" Which doesn't actually sound like she's interested in Jaxom per se, but she is interested in Ruth, and Jaxom is the vehicle for that. Now, it's entirely possible that Sharra has become affectionate for Jaxom during his recovery, but she's been giving him a lot of signals that says she thought it was the fever talking and not him. I haven't seen any change in her that hasn't been filtered through Jaxom's desire for her. To have it come to sex at this point seems to be a sign of narrative necessity and not any organic reason that has to do with Jaxom.

The closing line for the chapter is

> They made love in the soft warm darkness, delighting in each other and fully responsive to the moment of ecstasy that came, totally aware that Ruth loved with them.

Which still suggests that _Ruth_ is the interesting thing in their mental threesome and not Jaxom. It would be nice to have more explicit confirmation of this from the text, otherwise it's basically the narrative rewarding Jaxom for being creepy, possessive, and trying to control Sharra. Which, admittedly, is in character for the narrative, but is still a bad thing.

Now that I look at it, Ruth may, in fact, have a sex drive, but not one that wants to engage in mating flights and the physicality that goes along with it. He'd rather be engaged with the minds in the act than get physical. Being able to peer into Ruth's head during this would be nice. Instead, all we get is everyone apparently has a good time.

_[It's also possible that Ruth is just curious about things, and that they're still relating to everything in how it makes Jaxom feel. After all, he's spent the last many chapters having very frustrated pantsfeelings for Sharra, and as best as I can tell, the narrative could be construed to say that she's doing this as a favor to Ruth, to get a feel of what it might be like to have a dragon alongside you for sex, and that Jaxom might be good enough to screw makes it pleasant enough. It's entirely possible that the whole thing is coming about because Sharra is more interested in Ruth than in Jaxom, but that she has to screw Jaxom to get to Ruth. That would make for a much better story than the one where the midfit Hold kid gets the not conventionally pretty but otherwise quite attractive and awesome person of his proper rank to romance and have sex with.]_


	22. Unearthing One's Ancestors

Last chapter, Robinton got settled into a retirement house, not that he took it easy, Jaxom was able to finally figure out what the ominous fire-lizard dreams meant, resulting in the discovery of the settlement of the Ancients, and Jaxom also got his creepy wish fulfilled by having sex with Sharra, mediated by Ruth.

**The White Dragon: Chapter XX: Content Notes: Misogyny, Toxic Masculinity**

(15.10.18-15.10.20)

(Also, this chapter is nearly as long as the last. Seems like the author is trying to cram a lot in near the end, instead of spacing things out and spending less time on recovery.)

Chapter XX opens with the attempt by Ruth to focus the wild fire-lizards into providing useful information about the buried settlement. News of the find has spread very rapidly, and a large amount of people are planning on helping with the excavation, so the wild fire-lizards are about to make themselves very scarce. There's no new information extracted, but with time to analyze and realize what perspective they are watching from, Menolly and Brekke are able to deduce which peak exploded (the smallest one, not the big one) and which part of the settlement the people were running from when it happened.

Girl Power, yo. Also, still wondering how the Ancients were caught unaware of the seismic activity, but if it wasn't the expected volcano, that at least provides some plausibility (it wasn't the one we expected! No sensors there.)

The next scene is the beginning of the excavation, where several dragonriders, Craftmasters, and Toric, the Southern Lord Holder all choose their preferred spots for digging and get to work. They work for a significant amount of time before Sharra sets her fire-lizards on the task, which prompts Jaxom to ask Ruth, and the other riders to get their dragons in on earth-moving. Considering how the dragons helped with the construction of Cove Hold, I'm surprised that nobody came up with that idea sooner.

Since Toric was spotted, Sharra and Lessa have been mentioning that Toric is a highly ambitious man, possibly in the same mold as Fax, and Sharra says Toric isn't very trustworthy. He is, apparently, possibly paranoid, as Sharra is not very enthusiastic about Jaxom pulling her close and mentions that his fire-lizards may be spying, even if Toric himself isn't looking. There's some quick talk of how Toric has other intentions for Sharra, and Jaxom promises he'll win over Toric and everyone else the proper way before the dragon digging produces fruit.

I have one question for you, Jaxom. What about Corana? You rather explicitly mentioned in your internal monologue that you considered her a dalliance and someone to get your rocks off on, and you discarded her as soon as you got infatuated with Sharra, excepting for that point where you were complaining about blue balls. I'm not inclined to believe you're sincere about this pursuit, since you already have a history. And I also wonder what you're going to do to help Corana, since you probably ruined any marriage prospects she had by doing what you did with her. (Which is an entirely different complaint.)

The discovery is quickly excavated, with panels on the top, but no obvious entrance until the building is more fully dug out. Once the entrance is discovered, Lessa is ready to charge in (after the necessary parts of clearing the dirt off the sliding door tracks and oiling them sufficiently), but Fandarel stops her with a well-timed warning about fetid air.

After airing out the place, Toric discovers what he believes to be sleeping areas, and a spoon. made of a compound entirely foreign to them, not wood, and not like any known metal. The day passes in excavation, but it gets dark before a building that doesn't look like the sleeping quarters is fully uncovered...and the door is stuck. 

Toric seems to be sniping at everyone, and especially Jaxom, according to his ears, and the evening's plans and conversations mention him frequently - his belief that the Ancients took everything useful with them, that Masterminer Nixa can't get an agreement with Toric to mine ancient mines discovered on Southern, since Toric considers then his by right of an exploring party finding them. The Benden Weyrleaders cock an eyebrow and say they'll give Toric a talk on the next day (one that will likely include several unsubtle reminders about who is really in charge and what Toric should be doing to remain in good graces).

Having been needled enough about it, and reminded of Ruatha, and what Lessa went through to make sure that he was the one who would be in charge at Ruatha, instead of F'lessan, Jaxom decides he's going to go home and start acting like a Lord Holder.

...I mean, is going to start taking on the responsibilities of a Lord Holder. Based on the books so far, Jaxom has been acting like one for a good long while before this point. Before heading off, he goes for one last kiss.

> "And with Ruth, I can handle both responsibilities. Manage my Hold and please myself. You'll see!" He drew her closer to kiss her, but suddenly she broke away from him, pointing over his shoulder, her face mirroring hurt and anger. "What's the matter? What have I done, Sharra?"  
>  She pointed to the tree where two fire-lizards were intently watching.  
>  "Those are Toric's. He's watching me. Us!"  
>  "Great! Let him have no mistake about my intentions toward you!" He kissed her until he felt her taut body responding to his, till the angry set of her lips dissolved into willingness. "I'd give him more to see but I want to get back to Ruatha Hold this evening." He rapidly drew on his riding gear and called to Ruth. "I'll be back in the morning, Sharra? Tell the others, will you?"

Hrm. Jaxom has been baited by Toric pretty well, and is playing his role as a hothead, but it seems like Jaxom is doing this to get the approval of Toric, to be seen as a peer, so that he can stake a claim to Sharra, instead of any other reason. So Jaxom is still thinking with his penis. Just this time, he's getting into a dick-swinging contest over Sharra, with neither him nor Toric believing that Sharra actually has a say in things.

So Jaxom heads off to Ruatha, and asks Lytol if there's anything getting in the way of his confirmation as Lord Holder. Lytol says no, and gives him a gentle ribbing about whether or not Sharra has something to do with his change of mind. Jaxom acknowledges that it is "a large part of my haste" and finds out that Toric intends to be a major player in the South, and that all the landless sons who went south with the promise of land will likely back Toric in any sort of conflict that might develop. He also suggests that Lytol could be put to use in the puzzle of the Ancient settlement once Jaxom takes over at Ruatha.

Back at the Cove, Jaxom sleeps to the dawn, wakes up, sneaks around to gather supplies and get Ruth off to the settlement. He wants Ruth to call for fire-lizards away from the eruption site to see if he can coax any better memories from them, but while he's picking out a spot, a part of the landscape attracts his eye, and he follows it to a distinct part of the land, a little away from the settlement.

> No sooner had he asked Ruth to land than fire-lizards erupted about them, chittering with wild excitement and unbelievable pleasure.  
>  [...]  
>  **They are happy. They are glad you are come back. It has been so long.**  
>  "When I was first here?" Jaxom asked Ruth, having learned not to confuse the fire-lizards with generations. "Can they remember?"  
>  **When you came out of the sky in long gray things?** Ruth sounded bewildered even as he relayed the answer. Jaxom leaned against Ruth, scarcely crediting the reply. "Show me!"  
>  Brilliant and conflicting images stunned him as he saw vistas, unfocused at first, then resolving into a clear picture as Ruth sorted out the myriad impressions into one single coherent view.  
>  The cylinders were grayish, with stubby wings that were poor imitations of the graceful pinions of the dragons. The cylinders bore rings of smaller tubes at one end while the other was blunt-nosed. Suddenly an opening appeared about a third of the way from the tubed end of the first ship. Men and women walked down a ramp. A progression of images flashed across Jaxom's mind then, of people running about, embracing each other, jumping up and down.

The image doesn't hold together after this point because the fire-lizards start showing their own individual viewpoints again, but Jaxom has noticed and discovered the original landing site for the colony.

And apparently in the future of the late 70s and early 80s, we're still using cigar-shaped rockets as our primary mode of people and material transport. Which are not VTOL devices, nor things that can even be easily stood up again. Apparently, coming down was a one-way trip, hope you got everything you needed.

Anyway, with the help of the fire-lizards' memory, Jaxom finds the right spot for the hatch, and then briefly considers calling for backup. Ruth talks him out of it by saying everyone else is asleep and he's totally up for another day of digging. They unearth together, and when they hit the important parts, Jaxom decides it really is time for reinforcements.

And it's taken me this long to realize it, but the last time we saw Jaxom, he was having boys' adventure stories with Felessan, so the fact that this half of the book is returning to that formula shouldn't be a surprise. The first half has been the growing-up story, with the quick adventure interlude regarding Ramoth's egg. Now that we're supposed to see Jaxom as all grown up, we're returning to the template, just now as "a man and his dragon". So naturally it's Jaxom and Ruth sneaking off to make great discoveries. A running theme in the adventure stories is that the adults don't listen or try to keep the kids away, and that the smallest are almost always the ones to make the biggest discoveries. Which makes Jaxom and Ruth the necessary candidates.

The excitement of the new find has everyone astir again, including the Brown Rider Rapist, dispatched from Benden to figure out what has all the fire-lizards agitated and annoying Lessa this time. Robinton invites himself along this time, making a dramatic show that the suspense of not knowing is stressing his heart unnecessarily. He promises not to exert himself by digging, to which Menolly threatens to sit on him if he does, as everyone apparently fears getting chewed out by Brekke if word gets out.

So tell me again why Mirrim is disliked for her abrasiveness and Brekke isn't?

Further excavation at the site reveals the door to the shuttlecraft, at which point the Benden Weyrleaders and the Mastersmith are brought in to also see what's inside. Pern's chief scientist goes to work immediately and discovers the way in.

> " **Aha!** The Smith cried in sudden triumph, startling everyone. He'd been examining the rim of the doorway minutely. "Perhaps this is meant to move!" He dropped to his knees to the exposed right corner. "Yes, I'd one excavated the entire vessel, this would probably be man-height! I think I ought to press." He put action to words and a small panel slid open to one side of the main door. It displayed a depression occupied by several colored circles.  
>  Everyone crowded around him as his big fingers wiggled preparatorily and then hovered first over the upper rank of green circles. The bottom ones were red.  
>  "Red has always meant danger, a convention we undoubtedly learned from the ancients," he said. "Green we will therefore try first!" His thick forefinger hesitated a moment longer and then stabbed the green button.

And thus, having armed the self-destruct mechanism by not inputting the lock code, the shuttle exploded and everyone died. The end.

...well, it could have happened. Admittedly, though, with enough of a time gap, there's no way of knowing, without records, what would happen, so go scientific curiosity. Also, I wish there were more touches of culture in these books like Fandarel mentioning that red is always a warning color. It's been passed down forever, and the Red Star reinforces that, and it just is.

Also, I want to see the story of what happened to the Pern where the Smiths are the ruling power. If Fandarel is a typical example, I suspect the planet would be much closer to the tech level of the Ancients by now, and run on efficiency as its motto. How nice it would be to have automated Thread defense systems and the dragons. And vastly fewer hangups about gender roles and feudal government that shouldn't exist anyway.

> At first nothing happened. Jaxom felt a clenching, like a cold hand on his guts, the prelude to inner disappointment.  
>  "No, look, it's opening!" Piemur's keen eyes caught the first barely perceptible widening of the crack.  
>  "It's old," the Smith said reverently. "A very old mechanism," he added as they all heard the faint protest of movement.  
>  Slowly the door moved inward and then, astonishingly, it moved sideways, into the hull of the ship.

Aaaaand, there went my suspension of disbelief. Throughout this chapter, although I haven't quoted any of it, there have been hints that the objects and things covered by the ash have had odd-looking things on their tips designed to hint that the buildings and everything else use solar panels to collect power. Unless there have been significant advances in technology since our time in the efficiency of solar cells, a few hours charge in the sun isn't likely to provide enough power to light up the access panels or to activate the door. I would guess the eons of being covered by the ash would provide no chance to recharge, so the battery should long have exhausted its charge. Unless there's an alternate power source like a mini nuclear reactor that we haven't discovered yet.

In any case, light is fetched and everyone goes inside to examine the craft, which turns out to contain what appears to be several maps of Pern, in various styles and illuminations - all drawn on the walls of the ship, and while the party can decipher some of the color and marking, as well as the star chart that shows the planets in the system they know about and a few more, there's still plenty they don't get, and they realize they have to adjust for the knowledge that the land itself has changed significantly since those ship maps were drawn.

It's a treasure trove of new knowledge, and it also shows how big the Southern Continent really is - more than enough land that even if Toric got really ambitious, he couldn't hold the whole thing, Jaxom realizes as he's copying the new maps for the rest of the party to study. And that's where we leave him and this chapter. The plot has accelerated to rocket speed after hardly moving at all.


	23. exd8N++

Last chapter, Jaxom and Ruth snuck off, did some digging, and uncovered the shuttle rockets that brought down the settlers to Pern. The big find - ancient maps. Now, with the growing threat of an ambitious Holder in the South, the coalition of Benden and the Harpers move their pieces into position...

**The White Dragon, Chapter XXI: Content Notes: Sex policing,**

(15.10.21)

Last chapter. And it's shorter than usual, at a mere nine pages on my reader. Let's dive in.

Chapter XXI opens with a meeting between the Benden Weyrleaders and Masterharper Robinton to discuss the matters at hand.

> "Toric is a man we shall have to watch these next Turns. I'd no idea he'd prove so ambitious."  
>  "Farsighted, too," Robinton said in a dry tone. "He achieves as much by gratitude as by possession."  
>  "Gratitude has a tendency to sour," F'lar said.  
>  "He's not fool enough to rely on that alone," Lessa said with a rueful expression then looked about her, puzzled. "Did I see Sharra at all this morning?"  
>  "No, a rider collected her last evening. There's illness at--oh!" The Harper's eyes widened to emphasize his surprised dismay. "Now there's no fool like an old one. It never occurred to me to doubt that message. Yes, he'd use Sharra, and his other sisters. He has several daughters as well to bind men to him. Jaxom will react to this situation, I think."  
>  "I hope so," Lessa said with some asperity. "I rather approve of Sharra as a match. If this is not a simple case of his being grateful for her nursing..." She clucked her tongue at the mention of gratitude.  
>  Robinton laughed. "Brekke feels, and so does Menolly, that the attachment is sincere on both sides. I've been daily hoping he would ask me to officiate. Especially in view of today's reflections. By the way, only it isn't exactly by the way but to our point, Jaxom went back to Ruatha Hold last evening. He approached Lytol on the subject of his confirmation as Lord Holder."  
>  "Did he?" F'lar was as pleased as his weyrmate. "Prompted by Sharra? Or by Toric's not-too-subtle jibing yesterday?"

Well, so long as everyone approves, then. We couldn't leave it up to Jaxom and Sharra, could we?

Secondly, I'm still not sure at all that is a mutual affection. Sure, there was sex involved, but Jaxom had quite a bit of sex with Corana without any affection developing. And the last time we saw inside Sharra's head without an intermediary, she was still pretty sure it was nursing gratitude. I can easily see what Sharra did with Jaxom as a favor to Ruth and not for any affection to Jaxom. Or to make Toric mad that she's ruining his plans for her.

And speaking of plans, shouldn't everyone in this meeting be a lot more concerned for the common knowledge that Sharra is likely being held against her will and possibly pressured into a marriage she doesn't want? Why is everyone sitting around, quipping that Jaxom will do something about it, so the problem is solved? You've got great big flame-throwing beasts and have done intimidation before, why not now? Why are you treating Sharra like a woman destined for the fridge instead of a critical component in your plan to make Jaxom overthrow Toric? Lessa got the Benden Weyrleader to off Fax with less, and for less reason. This lack of urgency suggests that they don't care, believing Jaxom will act, regardless of what happens to Sharra. 

> DARK HELMET: Who is he?  
>  COLONEL SANDURZ: He's an asshole.  
>  DARK HELMET: I know that! What's his name?  
>  COLONEL SANDURZ: That is his name, sir. Major Asshole.  
>  DARK HELMET: And the cousin?  
>  COLONEL SANDURZ: He's an Asshole, too, sir. Gunner's Mate First Class Phillip Asshole.  
>  DARK HELMET: How many assholes do we got on this ship, anyhow?  
>  [BRIDGE CREW all jump to their feet and raise a hand]  
>  BRIDGE CREW: YO!  
>  DARK HELMET: I knew it! I'm surrounded by assholes! 

An interruption to the meeting sends everyone back to the excavation site, where we discover the mound the Masterminer unearthed is a classroom, with "numerals and letters paraded as design across the far end, and rather fascinating animals, large and small and bearing no resemblance to anything walking Pern's surface" on the walls. Robinton identifies it as a "harper's room, for the very young learning first Teaching Songs and Ballads", which is the closest analogue anyone on the planet has to the idea of school.

Jaxom arrives soon after, and confides in Robinton his plan to storm Southern and take back Sharra from Toric.

> There was a dangerous glint in Jaxom's eyes and a sternness to his features which, for the first time since Robinton has known the lad, gave him the look of his father, Fax, a resemblance which afforded Robinton some small pleasure.

Uh, what? I thought we had already established that Fax was supposed to be the incarnation of the Evil Holder. Shouldn't it be _frightening_ Robinton to see Fax coming out so clearly in his son, not amusing? Unless Robinton doesn't really expect Jaxom to get in a knife fight with Toric, or that Jaxom will make all sorts of grand gestures and someone behind the scenes will make the magic work. Except Robinton has deduced that Jaxom did the queen egg run earlier in the book, so Robinton should have an idea of what Jaxom is capable of.

In all cases, before Jaxom can go storm the castle, Toric comes to see Robinton and express his distaste for the match between Sharra and Jaxom, calling Ruatha a "table-sized" Hold...to Jaxom, who is unhappy about it. But Lessa overhears and drops saccharine acid over that suggestion, with Robinton obliquely pointing out the danger of the situation at hand. The Benden Weyrwoman asks Toric and Robinton to talk somewhere in private about Jaxom and Sharra with a glorious unstated threat.

> "There's surely no time like the present," Lessa continued at her sweetest, "to discuss the future. Your future."

Now _that's_ the Lessa I remember, and have been waiting to see come back. Unfortunately, Lessa stops speaking as the men start negotiating. At this point, though, I would much prefer Jaxom Errol Flynning to yet more of men talking over women.

Anyway, Toric outlines how far he has sent expeditions, with the help of the dragonriders of the Southern Weyr (an alliance hinted at by the fact that D'ram has been shuttling Toric back and forth to various meetings at the excavation site) and what he would like to have. Lessa is more than willing to give it to him, knowing that the Continent itself is far bigger than that, and soon after, the obvious becomes apparent, that this entire conversation was meant to keep Toric occupied while Jaxom does, in fact, do his best Errol Flynn routine.

Which we then get to see. After realizing that Toric would stomp him in a knife fight (not, we note, that smaller reach and height stopped the Benden Weyrleader from winning his knife fights), Jaxom arranges through Ruth for Sharra to get to the Hatching Ground, where two of Toric's guards are chasing her, weapons out. Sharra isn't wearing much for clothing, and has a blanket wrapped around her for warmth. After Jaxom and Sharra are safely in the air, it's time for a Bond One-Liner...

> "I think your brother has miscalculated, Sharra."  
>  "Take me away from here, Jaxom. Take me to Ruatha! I've never been so furious in all my life. I never want to see that brother of mine again. If all the devious, misguided..."  
>  "We have to see your brother again, for I'm not hiding from him. We'll have it out in the open today!"

...and, for the most part, Sharra is having none of it. She is concerned that Jaxom will get killed in a knife fight, though.

Thankfully, Jaxom is not going to get into that. In that respect, he might be smarter than the Benden dragonriders. After demonstrating that Ruth can command the fire-lizards, if need be, including Toric's, Jaxom outlines to Toric exactly what sort of rock and hard place he's been put between.

> "How did you know Southern? I was informed you've never been there!" He [Toric] made a half-turn as if to accuse Lessa and F'lar of complicity.  
>  "Your informant erred," Jaxom said, wondering if it had been Dorse. [You know, Jaxom's milk-brother and bully, who we haven't seen or heard from since the beginning of the book.] "Today is not the first time I've retrieved something from the Southern Weyr which belongs to the North." He laid his arm possessively about Sharra's shoulders.  
>  Toric's composure deserted him. **"You!"** He extended an arm, pointing at Jaxom; his face was a mixture of anger, indignant outrage, disappointment, frustration, and lastly, a grudging respect. " **You** took the egg back! You and that...but the fire-lizards' images were black!"  
>  "I'd be stupid not to darken a white hide if I make a night pass, wouldn't I?" Jaxom asked with understandable scorn.  
>  "I knew it wasn't one of T'ron's riders," Toric cried, his fists clenching and unclenching. "But for you to... Well now," and Toric's whole attitude changed radically. He began to smile again, a trifle sourly as he looked at the Benden Weyrleaders and then the Harper. Then he started to laugh, losing anger and frustration in that laughter. "If you knew, lordling..." again he pointed fiercely at Jaxom, "the plans you ruined, the...How many people knew it was you?"

A few, it turns out. And Jaxom apparently did spill all while he was recovering from the fever earlier on. Perhaps this is supposed to be our justification for Sharra liking Jaxom - he clearly did something heroic and didn't talk about it except when under the grips of fever.

Having outlined his position, Jaxom asks Toric for Sharra's hand in marriage and gets it... which I don't really get. Considering, as Toric points out, he doesn't have a choice in the matter, the asking part really is moot. Maybe so that later on, the witnesses will be able to tell the truth that the permission was asked and approved? Either way, it seems really out of place for this exchange to be happening. Toric, having been humiliated, heads back to the thing he thinks he can control - the size of his Hold. And the chapter ends.

There's also an afterword, which is basically on the day of Jaxom's Confirmation. Of note is that Toric apparently sent food up for the event (how grudgingly, we wonder, only to be told later that Jaxom has been siding with Toric and the younger Lords, because the old Lords like Groghe don't understand the new needs and requirements of the times), and N'ton informs everyone that one of the oddly-colored maps in the ship was a tectonic and resource map, showing both the fault lines, the potential affected area of those faults and volcanoes, and the presence of seams and deposits of "metals, black water and black stone", which we presume are oil and coal (coal has already been used as a word earlier, in relation to Crom Hold, so no reason to tiptoe around it). Nicat and Piemur are doing most of the work there, but everyone present has a thought about their retirement days at the end of the Present Pass: rediscovering more of the South, figuring out how to get dragons to places they haven't seen yet, like the ships in orbit, and how to defeat the menace of Thread permanently. Now that the dragonriders know they have a place to retire to, that is.

And to make sure we know that the circle is being closed, there's a call back to the beginning:

> "It's your day, too, Lessa," he said, taking her hand to his lips. "A day your determination and spirit made possible!" He turned her into his arms and made her look up at him. "Ruathan Blood holds Ruathan lands today!"  
>  "Which proves," she said, pretending to be haughty though her body was pliant against his, "that if you try hard enough, and work long enough, you can achieve anything you desire!"  
>  "I hope you're right," F'lar said, unerringly turning his gaze toward the Red Star. "One day dragonriders will conquer that Star!"

What Lessa just said is a _lie_ , on par with the delicious cake offered at Aperture Science. While it might be true after the Cosmic Retcon between Dragonflight and Dragonquest, Lessa had much greater ambitions in the first book to rule the place herself after having Fax disposed of. The Benden Weyrleader thwarted those ambitions by kidnapping her and putting her in as a candidate for Ramoth, which essentially killed her ambition to rule Ruatha and allowed Jaxom to take hold. Only afterward, and after significant struggle and abuse, does Lessa settle for the goal of having Jaxom in charge, since she can't make any headway on doing it herself.

So, that's the end of the book, with everyone heading off to Jaxom's confirmation, having gotten the girl he wanted and given a black eye to the one who wanted to keep her away. There's a listing of data clearly added after initial publication in my electronic version, so we'll be skipping that, as usual.

The final point I have to make in this regard is this: History Repeats. If this end sounds familiar to you, it's because this is the third time, I believe, that Benden has left someone at Southern with animosity toward them and seems to be assuming they won't plot or plan anything in revenge. First, there was the initial exile of the time-skipped after a knife fight, which resulted in the pact with Meron to supply goods to the South, and which ended with the death of Meron, but no resolution to the problem, as the thought of "Well, they'll all graciously accept exile to death" is rather...dumb. And it flared up again with the stolen egg, which resulted in another knife fight...and the problem was still not resolved, as while the time-skipped might die out, there's a culture of resentment well-bred in the South, perfect for another ambitious Lord Holder to try and set themselves up as the master of the continent, in alliance with the exiled dragonriders. While the dragonriders put the Holder in check and get one of their own the woman he wants, they still leave him in charge at Southern, ready for the next problem or ambition to put him in opposition to the Benden Weyrleaders. I don't really fathom how they haven't realized that this is a pattern for themselves. Or at least they don't seem to think that Toric is going to have any more ambition, now that he's been chastised. It makes no sense. History Repeats.

We've finished the initial run of the Dragonriders of Pern at this point, as well as the Harper Hall trilogy. We can stop now, if you'd like, or are bored with the whole thing, or we can continue on to the next sequence of Pern, starting with Moreta. (Originally, the Renegades series, because The Other Wiki believes that Moreta is part of that series.) Let me know in the comments, please.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> exd8N++ is chess notation for: "Pawn captures the piece in square d8 (which, if none of the back row pieces have moved from their start positions, means a white pawn captures the black queen,) promotes to a knight, from this new situation, checkmate."


End file.
